%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1363781479065213300%% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread.%%[[quoteright:340:[[Website/RottenTomatoes http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Snow_Time_for_a_Sequel_5010.png]]]][[caption-width-right:340:[[{{Pun}} 'Snow time]] [[Film/TheSantaClause for a sequel!]]]]

->''"It's a sequel to the original show, but they kinda' messed it up [...] It's not very realistic, is all I'm saying."''-->-- '''[[Franchise/Ben10 Ben Tennyson]]''', mirroring much of the fandom's feelings about ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce''

As the number of films in a series grows, the probability that the latest entry will be terrible increases geometrically. While the first sequel of a movie is something of a coin toss between "totally awesome" and "mediocre", the more they push the [[CashCowFranchise Cash Cow]], the riskier it gets. Of course, movies that go to theatre have high production values. On the whole, their directors are at least ''trying.'' But if it's DirectToVideo, the chances that the third one is nothing but unmitigated crap is already close to 100%. This is partly because people assume a DTV movie is just something that wasn't good enough to get into theatres. [[SturgeonsLaw And, as a general rule, they tend to be right]].

In other words, {{Sequel}}s to movies, generally created on the impetus of box office revenue, are rarely as good as the movie they're a sequel to. If there is a third installment, it will frequently mark a sharp downhill turn even when the second movie turned out all right. And even if there's a good trilogy, going beyond ''that'' has an even greater chance of crapitude.

Note, however, that this usually applies to ''unplanned'' sequels. Numerous examples exist of planned sequels which have been extremely good. And good unplanned sequels do exist, but the vast majority of sequels are on a downhill slope. The distinction is that unplanned sequels tend to have the feel of being tacked onto a story that was finished and done with, for no reason other than that the first work made lots of money and someone wants to keep that sweet gravy train rolling.

Common symptoms of Sequelitis -- the elements that contribute to the sequel not being as well-received as the original -- can include, but are not limited to:

* Making a sequel just because the original was successful and [[MoneyDearBoy the executives want more money]], regardless of the creative potential for a sequel and regardless of the fans wanting a sequel or not.* The original was thematically rich, but then the sequels were either too {{Anvilicious}} with topics that require tact and subtlety or only scraped the surface of subjects where SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped. * {{Retcon}}s that upset people for whatever reason.* FranchiseOriginalSin: Early in the franchise there were minor flaws, but as new installments roll in these problems just get out of hand.* [[SequelReset Undoing the ending of the previous film]] when it gave no room for more stories. The backlash can go double for sequels that [[HappyEndingOverride turn happy endings into the beginning of great suffering, struggle, and conflict]].* The [[AssPull contrived]] revival or return of a character (particularly a [[JokerImmunity villain]]) who was killed off or kicked out in the first film.* The [[TheOtherDarrin recasting]] of the returning characters with a cheap batch of B-list actors (and not ''just'' those formerly played by child actors who are now too old, or big name stars now busy elsewhere).* The [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome mysterious unexplained departure]] of a main or major supporting character from the original movie, usually because the actor(s) didn't want to return and the filmmakers wouldn't or couldn't recast the role.* The casual, shameless, meaningless, and sometimes [[DroppedABridgeOnHim callous]] [[SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome killing off of beloved characters]].* The [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome mysterious unexplained departure]] of a hero's love interest, usually because the producers thought the {{Shipp|ing}}ers would lose interest in the hero if he or she was married. At most, there may be a [[HandWave throwaway line]] that tells us 'it didn't work out'. This doesn't stop the hero getting a new love interest.* The sequel revolving around the (often [[RememberTheNewGuy previously unmentioned]]) relative/friend of a beloved character whose actor can't or won't return, in hopes that a connection to the original character will help make the new character just as popular as the original. This can lead to InNameOnly.* The sequel being LighterAndSofter than the original, to the point of being labelled a kid's movie and alienating most or all of the original's fanbase, or being DarkerAndEdgier just for the sake of it when it wasn't necessary and it doesn't make it any better, just not as good for kids.* Being [[RecycledScript too similar to the previous movie(s)]], to the point that it's just the same thing over again. For the more general trope applying to recycled story arcs, see FleetingDemographicRule.* Being nothing like the previous movie(s), but not because they want to stay fresh or try to innovate, but for other reasons like not being able to do something like the original thanks to the plot/actors/lower budget/rating/licenses/etc, or [[{{WereStillRelevantDammit}} relying on what is current and/or popular]] or [[FollowTheLeader trying to be more like other successful movies]].* {{Wacky Wayside Tribe}}s begin choking the plot to conceal the fact that the writers have basically run out of story.* The reuse of some element that was felt to be important to the first movie's success, in hopes that having [[UpToEleven even more of that element]] will make the sequel even better. If it works for the first sequel, it will be cranked up more and more in further sequels. This may lead to VulgarHumor, sadistic slapstick violence, or something else along those lines.* PanderingToTheBase, which can come in several harmful forms that may appear together or separately:** Potential new audience members become victims of ContinuityLockout when knowledge of the first movie - or the source material - is required to understand what's going on.** ContinuityPorn annoying fans who get the nods and being [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment downright confusing and jarring]] to those who might not even know references are being made.** Existing fans become irritated when elements they liked in the first movie are overused or used poorly. They typically say so, quickly and loudly. This can be caused by the filmmakers having a limited or poor understanding of what the general fanbase liked, leading to their catering to the FanDumb.** This is particularly the case when bringing back a character who [[EnsembleDarkhorse unexpectedly won the audience over]] in the first movie, only [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter to do nothing interesting with them]] - or worse, {{Flanderiz|ation}}e them so much that they end up being a one-dimensional caricature of the charming and multi-faceted character the audience fell in love with in the first place.** The opposite can happen, where an intentionally wacky story based on RuleOfCool and RuleOfFunny [[CerebusSyndrome tries to ground itself and be more realistic in the sequel]], losing its original charm in the process. However, this seems to be a far less common occurrence than the reverse.* With adaptations or [[TheRemake remakes]], when all the source material was already covered up in the previous movie(s), [[OvertookTheSeries keeping on making sequels but with original stories]], especially when the author of the original source material doesn't come to help despite being available and bonus if the new stories aren't faithful to the originals, looking like bad fanfics.* The attempt to turn a standalone movie into a TwoPartTrilogy, resulting in two bloated, incoherent sequels with too little plot stretched between them.* Attempting to up the ante from the previous instalments or trying to make the environment bigger and better in the sequel but end up writing themselves into a corner and making the next sequel a let down for not living up to the past instalment or for not upping the ante again.

The dreadful compulsion on the part of writers and filmmakers to add new chapters to perfectly good works has been likened to an addiction, sometimes termed 'sequelholism'. The writers sometimes seem aware of this, and as a run of sequels are produced they may drop numbering the movies entirely and start [[OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo adding cliché subtitles]]. This only makes it harder to guess the order to watch for new fans. If they ''aren't'' aware of this, then, in the end, odds are FirstInstallmentWins.

The inverse is a SurprisinglyImprovedSequel (a good sequel to a mediocre or terrible work) or EvenBetterSequel (an awesome sequel to a good original work). ContestedSequel is when there is considerable division about the sequel's quality. For a strangely divergent sequel, see InNameOnly. For a sequel that retains the monster or villain but features none of the original heroes, see VillainBasedFranchise. Can be caused by a poor choice in SequelEscalation, and lead up to FranchiseZombie if a sequel that should have been a FranchiseKiller doesn't destroy the series. Backlash against sequels has made many reviewers {{Sequelphobic}}. Some fans treat such sequels with FanonDiscontinuity. See also SophomoreSlump, TheProblemWithLicensedGames. For TV series, this can sometimes be a result of a PostScriptSeason. The reason why SequelSnark and RidiculousFutureSequelization became common jokes.

To see Creator/{{Egoraptor}}'s web series [[NamesTheSame of the same name]], click '''[[WebVideo/{{Sequelitis}} here]]'''.

----!!Examples:

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[[folder:Anime and Manga]]* Rumor has it Creator/YoshiyukiTomino invented the KillEmAll trope partly to prevent this from occurring, as he routinely claimed to despise sequel work. Obviously it ''greatly'' backfired with ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' (the franchise continued even after the original principal characters [[AcePilot Amuro Ray]] and [[RedBaron Char Aznable]] died), but most of Tomino's other works, such as ''Anime/AuraBattlerDunbine'' and ''Anime/SpaceRunawayIdeon'', otherwise ended with their initial series since most of their casts (or their ''entire'' setting in the case of ''Ideon'') were killed off.* ''Manga/TokyoMewMew a la mode'' ended up being penned by a different writer (Mia Ikumi, the artist of the original series), but taking place in a universe explicitly the same as the original, something many anime [[AlternateContinuity explicitly avoid]] in order to start fresh. And that's the mildest of its many, many problems.* ''VisualNovel/{{Shuffle}} Memories''. Though some fans say it's terrible, other fans say that the FanService-laden last episode was more than enough to make up for the terrible recap of ''Shuffle''* ''VisualNovel/ToHeart: Remember my Memories''.* ''Manga/DragonBall'':** ''Anime/DragonBallGT'' is seen by some of the ''Dragon Ball'' fanbase as a combination of this and FranchiseZombie due to being done by Toei Animation, [[WordOfGod declared non-canon]] by [[Creator/AkiraToriyama the creator]], and only featuring a couple of his designs.** Of the {{Non Serial Movie}}s, two of the most consistently well-regarded are ''[[Anime/DragonBallZCoolersRevenge Cooler's Revenge]]'' and ''[[Anime/DragonBallZBrolyTheLegendarySuperSaiyan Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan]].'' Their sequel films (''[[Anime/DragonBallZTheReturnOfCooler The Return of Cooler]]'' for the former and ''[[Anime/DragonBallZBrolySecondComing Broly - Second Coming]]'' and ''[[Anime/DragonBallZBioBroly Bio-Broly]]'' for the latter) are considered some of the worst - on top of a host of problems, such as a weaker cast of characters in the latter and extremely poor animation in the former, the consensus is that they missed the point of what made the previous films good to begin with.* If the subpar ratings in Japan and overall lack of accreditation beyond loads of magazine previews (keyword here) are anything to say, the UnCancelled fourth (''Revolution'') and fifth (''Evolution-R'') seasons of the ''Anime/{{Slayers}}'' anime are this. Most countries outside Japan (including the States) gave the seasons positive reviews, but 'most' of the viewers were ''older fans'' of the series, so that still doesn't help in the long run.** A bizarre reversal of this trope occurs with the ''Slayers Smash'' novels, which are a part of the book series that takes place ''before'' the main storyline. Whereas the main series ended in 2000, the prequel books came out two years after the first original novel came out and are ''still ongoing.'' Sales have been dropping, and many fans agree that the adventures of Lina and [[GoldfishPoopGang Naga]] are being unnecessarily dragged out. Unfortunately, the man who created the novels has no intention of continuing the main storyline.** In hindsight, this seemed more accredited to either season not following upon the novel storylines (not even reaching the point where [[spoiler:Gourry finds the Blast Sword]]), and instead simply repeating the first series in reverse. Otherwise, ''Slayers'' fans had been demanding a follow up for quite some time, partly for the aforementioned and partly to alleviate the mediocrity that was ''Slayers Try''.* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' has, as of 2016, a total of ''nineteen'' movies made. Similar to ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'', most fans say that the quality of the movies has been all over the place, with the first few movies (''Anime/PokemonTheFirstMovie'', ''Anime/{{Pokemon 2000}}'', ''Anime/{{Pokemon 3}}'') being superior to most of the sequels[[note]][[SubbingVersusDubbing especially in Japanese]] where none of the messages and plot points are mangled or bowdlerized[[/note]], barring a few standouts (''[[Anime/PokemonLucarioAndTheMysteryOfMew Lucario and the Mystery of Mew]]'', ''[[Anime/PokemonKyuremVsTheSwordOfJustice Kyurem Vs the Sword of Justice]]''). However, two that have received notably negative reviews include ''[[Anime/PokemonGenesectAndTheLegendAwakened Genesect and the Legend Awakened]]'' and ''[[Anime/PokemonHoopaAndTheClashOfAges Hoopa and the Clash of Ages]]''; the latter of which ended up bombing at the Japanese box office and performing the worst out of ''all'' the movies.* The ''Anime/EurekaSeven'' fandom was [[ContestedSequel divided]] on the subject of ''Anime/EurekaSevenAO'' from its announcement. As the series progressed, barring [[WinTheCrowd brief moments of hope]], fan outlook grew increasingly bleak, with the ending (and even a few of the plot threads) provoking cries of FanonDiscontinuity. It hardly helped that it contradicted many of the themes of the original series, particularly [[spoiler:the ability of humans and Coralians to coexist]]. That last one was enough to spark the "[[BigBad Dewey]] [[TheExtremistWasRight was right!]]" fandom meme.* This is why ''Franchise/PrettyCure'' doesn't do sequel series anymore after the poor reception of ''Anime/YesPrettyCure5 Go Go!''. Many of them are realizing, though, that rival series ''Anime/{{Aikatsu}}'' is heading that way, what with a second sequel series coming up.* ''Anime/FushigiboshiNoFutagoHime'' has a sequel series in the form of ''Gyu!''. It took virtually all of the characters out of their unique world and put them into a generic school location and had a similarly-generic MonsterOfTheWeek format (going along the success of the previous series delving into MagicalGirlWarrior later during its run) and DemotedToExtra everyone but Fine and Rein. While it did introduce a handful of good characters, [[FanonDiscontinuity most fans like to pretend ''Gyu!'' never happened]].* ''Manga/GunslingerGirl il teatrino'' was received much more poorly than the original, for several reasons: [[TheOtherDarrin A new Japanese cast]], [[ActionizedSequel an emphasis on action]], more spotlight on the girls {{Precocious Crush}}es, a new {{Moe}} art style, lesser accurate GunPorn, [[spoiler:Angelica being alive]], and averting the fan-preferred AccidentalAesop in exchange for an anime that's clearly just meant to be about cute girls with guns. Oddly enough, ''il teatrino'' is truer in spirit to the manga than the first anime season.* ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis'' was canceled after 8 of the planned 13 episodes were produced due to legal issues. However, a 3-episode sequel ''Bubblegum Crash'' was made to give the series some closure, but it only ended up raising more questions, and altering many characters' personalities, as well as plot details. A 3-episode prequel ''A.D. Police Files'' was also released to decent reception. This was all followed by a pretty good TV series remake/reimagening ''Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040'', and got two more spinoff series, ''A.D. Police: To Protect and Serve'' and ''Parasite Dolls'', with the former being savaged by fans and critics, and the latter mostly going unnoticed. A sequel to ''Tokyo 2040'' called ''Tokyo 2041'' was once in production, but never left DevelopmentHell. * The 2003 sequel to the original '90s ''Anime/{{Tenchi Muyo|Ryo Ohki}}'' OVA series got poor reception from fans and critics, as well as the spinoff ''Anime/TenchiMuyoGXP''. The franchise had been dormant for a few years following the poor reception of spinoff ''Tenchi in Tokyo'', and the mixed reception of the three films. The original [=OVAs=] and their TV remake/reimagining ''Anime/TenchiUniverse'' are really the only parts of the franchise with good reception. * ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'' stepped away from its predecessor series' magical girl motif and toward a more military setting, but was criticized for [[DemotedToExtra pushing some earlier established characters aside]] in favor of newer ones, Yuuno and Chrono being among the most frequently mentioned.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]* Parodied in ''Comicbook/TheSimpsons'' comic book storyline "When Bongos Collide!", in which [[EveryoneIsASuper everyone in Springfield gets superpowers]] as a [[ILoveNuclearPower result of a nuclear explosion]]. Troy [=McClure=]'s alter-ego, The Sequelizer, has the power to "create an infinite number of copies of [himself] -- although [[CloneDegeneration each is only 50% as powerful as the one before]]."* Several fans think of [=Pk2=] as this for the excellent ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures''. Many more consider [[ContinuityReboot "Pikappa"]] a definite case.* ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'' suffered from this. He did fine when he started out as an occasional guest star in SpiderMan's comics and did okay when he debuted in his own limited series, and then ongoing series. Unfortunately, when he became more popular and Marvel started to star him in ''Punisher War Journal'' and ''Punisher War Zone'', fans started to see what a one-dimensional character he was. In 1995, all three of his comics were cancelled due to poor sales; he did gain some popularity back in 2000 as part of the Marvel Knights line. * ''Comicbook/AvengersUndercover'' was considered vastly inferior to both its immediate predecessors, ''Comicbook/AvengersAcademy'' and ''Comicbook/AvengersArena'', and sales were so bad it was canceled at ten issues out of an intended twelve. For reference, cancellation of a book that has a set number of issues from the get-go is extremely rare. ''Avengers Arena'' itself was a ContestedSequel at best, with very few fans of ''Academy'' or ''Comicbook/{{Runaways}}'' walking away satisfied. ''Undercover'', it seems, burned through what little goodwill ''Arena'' had remaining.* ''ComicBook/TheNail'' is one of the more beloved {{Elseworld}} stories, with its dark storytelling and interesting showcasing of a world without Franchise/{{Superman}} and how needed TheCape really is to the DCU. You'll find much fewer fans of ''Another Nail'', which featured a far more convoluted and silly plot without any real hook to draw it together.* ''ComicBook/SecretWars'' was, and is, widely regarded as ''the'' classic Marvel CrisisCrossover, and one that's [[UnbuiltTrope held up very well since.]] ''ComicBook/SecretWarsII'', on the other hand, usually gets the response of "There was a second one?" Of course, it's hard to blame one for forgetting; a sequel to one of the most action-packed books in Marvel's history where a lengthy scene is devoted to the main villain learning how to use the bathroom was never going to go down well, and the considerably worse writing (better suited to a Creator/JimCarrey comedy than a superhero event book) did it no favors. The biggest weakness was that it tried to make the story about the Beyonder, whom most readers didn't find very interesting the first time around, and assumed that readers cared about seeing his story resolved when they mostly saw him as a plot device.* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsCollide'' is beloved by readers of both ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'' and ''Comic/MegaMan'' for the unique way everything happened and giving both video game stars a chance to meet long before ''Franchise/SuperSmashBros'' could. Its sequel, ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsUnite'' isn't as beloved, due to [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters too many characters]] (seriously, not counting the main four of ''Sonic'', ''VideoGame/SonicBoom'', ''Mega Man'' and ''VideoGame/MegaManX'', there are ''twelve franchises'' represented here), wasting the Mega Man X characters, reducing Sonic Boom to just Sticks, and so on.* ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'' is widely seen as one of the best ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' stories in history. ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightStrikesAgain'' is at best polarizing, mostly due to CharacterDerailment of non-Batman characters, Batman himself being a bit of a JerkSue, some serious {{Author Tract}}s, and [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodLineArt shockingly bad color work.]] Its prequel, the clunkily-titled ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder'', is generally regarded as SoBadItsGood.* ''ComicBook/BatmanYearOne'', also by Creator/FrankMiller, is considered to be the definitive Batman origin story. By contrast, most people are barely aware that there ever was a ''Year Two'', considered SoOkayItsAverage at best. It really only comes up in discussions of how it inspired the much better-regarded ''Film/BatmanMaskOfThePhantasm''. ''Year Three'' is so obscure that it's never even been collected.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Fic]]* While ''Fanfic/ATrustedFriendInScienceAndPonies'' is still good, it lacks the humor of [[Fanfic/BetterLivingThroughScienceAndPonies the original story]], and while the story is more complex, it is much more obviously a fanfiction-style plot compared to the original's simpler, more faithful story.** The fic is currently being rebooted to bring it much closer to the original, without any of the extra necessities. So far almost twice as many words as the original (i.e. ''Better Living'') have been written.* InUniverse in ''Fanfic/RetroChill'': Galaxoid and Nebular send the protagonists ''[[Franchise/JurassicPark Triassic Park IX]]'' and ''Film/HarryPotter XCIX: The Fifth Hogwarts [[RougeAnglesOfSatin Reuinion]]''.* The HateFic[=/=]FixFic ''FanFic/MyLittleUnicorn'' has four sequels and counting [[note]]one's a "movie" and another is based on ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls''[[/note]], and they don't get any better. [=Beats0me=], a Website/DeviantArt member who draws parody comics of MLU, noted that the beginning of the series is SoBadItsGood, reminiscent of watching a corny old kids' action cartoon. However, the further it goes on, the more UnfortunateImplications, racism, sexism and other disturbing content start cropping up.* ''Fanfic/BesidesTheWillOfEvil'', while it has its fans, has received a lot more negative reaction than [[Fanfic/ItsADangerousBusinessGoingOutYourDoor its well liked predecessor.]] The main reasons for this are the BigBad, who is considered a VillainSue and GodModeSue, and the ''much'' darker tone that has gotten to the point DarknessInducedAudienceApathy has kicked in, especially compared to the adventure focused FindTheCure plot the original story had. In addition, due to how the villain escaped his prison, it makes the original story AllForNothing at best and a massive NiceJobBreakingItHero at worst (as [[spoiler:disturbing the World Snake]] ended up awakening the big bad).[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]* Franchise/{{Disney|AnimatedCanon}}'s run of DirectToVideo sequels from 1994 to 2007 made this inevitable. After ''Disney/AladdinTheReturnOfJafar'' enjoyed reasonable success and kicked off the well-written ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'', it opened the floodgates. While not all of their sequels were disasters, there were far more poor and mediocre sequels than you should expect from their franchises. More specifically...** ''Disney/PocahontasIIJourneyToANewWorld'' brings the title character slightly closer to her historical, real-life counterpart (her romance with John Rolfe, visiting England), and also shows her making more mature decisions. However, the quality of the movie itself was met with more varied opinions. It is particularly disliked because Pocahontas has a relationship with a different man in the sequel, destroying her romance with John Smith. The original was far enough removed from historical accuracy as it was.** ''Disney/{{Bambi}}'' has a direct-to-video midquel which was released just shy of the original's 65th anniversary. While it fares better with fans than most other Disney sequels, it is still usually regarded as average at best. The main complaints stem from that it either [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks adds too little new to the universe of the original]], or the changes it did make (i.e. Playing up contemporary humor, humanizing the characters' personalities and using contemporary folk songs mixed in with an orchestrated soundtrack) [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks were not for the better.]] It is generally praised for having good animation and visuals among the Disney sequels however, its high budget garnering it a theatrical release in some regions.** ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'' manages to really break the mold in terms of Disney animated movies, but its sequel, ''Kronk's New Groove'', was rather generic, playing out more like three episodes of a TV show strung together than an actual movie. Fittingly enough, there actually was later a TV series called ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewSchool'', complete with a [[TheOtherDarrin new voice actor for Kuzco]] and apparently having all of the soul of the first movie surgically removed and replaced with more slapstick.** The ''Disney/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'' sequel actually ''is'' three episodes from a planned TV series based on the movie that fell through. It's painfully obvious too, despite how desperately they try to connect the three completely unrelated stories together.** ''Disney/TheHunchbackOfNotreDameII'' was criticized for inferior animation, generic songs, and how many of the characters were incompetent. It was also heavily panned for its villain, widely considered one of Disney's worst in a followup to the film that gave us Judge Claude Frollo, who's widely lauded as one of Disney's deepest villains. One of the complaints included that Victor Hugo's novel couldn't have had a sequel because none of the characters survived. It was largely created to [[ThrowTheDogABone give Quasimodo a girlfriend]] but Madellaine was not a popular character. Some consider it Disney's worst DTV movie.** ''Disney/MulanII'' is decently-animated, but is largely overlooked and ultimately criticized for the even greater liberties taken in its portrayal of Chinese culture, one character [[TookALevelInJerkass taking a level in jerkass]], and for leaving the plot in which Mulan must save China once more unresolved; specifically, it was Mulan's mission to escort the Emperor's three daughters to a powerful lord in order to marry his sons, which would secure a union that would safeguard China from an impending invasion by the Mongols. Instead, shocked at the very idea of an ArrangedMarriage, Mulan teaches the princesses to [[MarryForLove follow their own paths]]. This would be a meaningful lesson except for the fact that in doing so such a union apparently never took shape by the end of the film, which despite ending on an uplifting note with Mulan's wedding [[InferredHolocaust does not address the Mongol invasion that is now sure to happen]] due to these actions. The sequel earned a rare 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and was part of a 2004/2005 year's worth of events at Disney that crushed both 2D animation and CEO Michael Eisner's career with the Mouse House; this movie is one of the catalysts to John Lasseter pulling the plug on the sequel machine. ** ''Disney/TheFoxAndTheHound 2'' is hated as well, due to being almost completely InNameOnly, and the entire thing is accused of being a case of TastesLikeDiabetes. This is one of the last DirectToVideo sequels to the canon produced; John Lasseter was already back at the studio full-time and had cancelled all sequel projects apart from ones that were already in production such as this one by the time it hit store shelves.** ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'' has two. The first one, ''Belle's Magical World'', is extremely episodic and formulaic, clearly written to try and kick off a TV series. The second one, ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeastTheEnchantedChristmas'', was received slightly better, but the plot has little to do with the fairytale, being more of a standard Christmas movie.** ''Disney/TheLittleMermaidIIReturnToTheSea'' is again, accused of reusing the first film's ideas only telling the story in reverse (a human character wanting to become a mermaid) with a few new characters thrown in. A prequel to the first one was also created, and it was the final prequel/sequel; John Lasseter allowed it to be made because it started production before his return, while he unplugged any future sequels/prequels that were still on the drawing board, including a ''Dumbo'' sequel that was announced on that film's 2001 DVD but had ended up in DevelopmentHell.** ''Disney/{{Cinderella}}'' has the first sequel, ''[[Disney/CinderellaIIDreamsComeTrue Dreams Come True]]'', which was perceived as weak and rather episodic. This is because, like ''Atlantis 2'', it's made up of three episodes for a planned ''Cinderella'' TV series that never got off the ground.** ''Disney/{{Tarzan}}'' had two sequels - one a midquel featuring a young Tarzan, the other a straight sequel. The second is considered at best mediocre, but the first is largely seen as even harder to sit through, due to basically being the first twenty minutes of the original stretched to fit a 90-minute runtime. Its only remarkable feature is an ape played by Creator/GeorgeCarlin, who seems to spend the entire movie holding back a swear.** In general, the "cheapquels" all suffer from this, simply by virtue of being lower-budget DirectToVideo sequels of polished, famous classics. Almost none are considered worthy followups, and even then, only in the cases where [[SurprisinglyImprovedSequel the original film was considered poor to begin with.]] In general, the ones considered decent films in their own right (if not compared to the original) include the ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' sequels, the ''Disney/LionKing'' sequels, and maybe ''Disney/ReturnToNeverland'' or ''Disney/BrotherBear 2''. ''Disney/CinderellaIIIATwistInTime'' is among the few Disney sequels that many consider to be as good as, if not better than, the original movie.** One of the conditions Creator/{{Pixar}} put when they joined with Disney was that they wouldn't be [[ExecutiveMeddling required]] to make sequels. In fact, because one of the parts of the merger was putting Pixar's people in charge of Disney's animation studio, one of the first things they did was halted production of Disney's own ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'', shutting down the studio that was making it (which got labeled as Pixaren't) and then they began working on the title in-house (Lasseter also halted the sequel craze for the DisneyAnimatedCanon, only allowing films that were already in production such as ''Cinderella III'' and ''The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning'' to continue; the latter is the last of the 14-year slate of DirectToVideo sequels that started with ''The Return of Jafar'' in 1994). Consequently, both the third movie and the entire ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' trilogy have been lauded as cinema classics. They did, however, make a sequel to ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'', widely considered [[RedHeadedStepchild one of their worst movies]], resulting in what is widely considered their worst movie, ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars 2}}'' and shattered their nearly spotless artistic reputation. The 2013 prequel to ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'', called ''WesternAnimation/MonstersUniversity'', didn't help matters, despite several good reviews. As of this writing, the only Pixar sequel outside of the ''Toy Story'' series to get a near-unanimously positive reception is ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory''.** For a [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon canon example]], ''Disney/{{Fantasia 2000}}'', while enjoying quite a good reception, is not as well regarded as the original ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}''; [[LighterAndSofter a lighter tone]] stemming from celebrity hosts and more cartoony pieces speaks of lower artistic ambition.** A former page quote itself was a long time slogan for Disney. With ''The Three Little Pigs'' being the best selling Silly Symphony, and thus a ToughActToFollow, it's unsurprising to think about how ''The Big Bad Wolf'', ''The Three Little Wolves'' and ''The Practical Pig'' fared in comparison.* ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'''s thirteen sequels. The quality of the series is up and down from movie to movie and may range from good to mediocre to poor; most agree that none are a match for Bluth's original film. It's a bad sign when there are more sequels than even horror movie franchises like ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}'', ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'', ''Film/ParanormalActivity'', or ''Franchise/FridayThe13th''.* The rest of Creator/DonBluth's animated films have also been hit with Sequelitis: there are currently sequels for ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'', ''WesternAnimation/AllDogsGoToHeaven'' (both of which also got a TV series), and ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNIMH''. ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTailFievelGoesWest'', though LighterAndSofter than the original, is actually considered a quality follow-up due to a higher budget theatrical release. ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNIMH2TimmyToTheRescue'' however, is considered terrible by practically all fans of the original. In all of those cases, Bluth was not involved with any of the sequels; the only sequels he was ever actually involved with making were the video game ''[[VideoGame/DragonsLair Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp]]'' and the ''WesternAnimation/{{Anastasia}}'' direct-to-DVD sequel ''WesternAnimation/BartokTheMagnificent'', which became a classic that we've all heard of. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen Incidentally Bluth was originally to have involvement in the other aforementioned sequels, but had to turn it down to due heavy development on his own projects at the time]].* 1995's ''WesternAnimation/{{Balto}}'' has two sequels that cause many {{Plot Hole}}s; given Creator/{{Universal}} Pictures' dislike of the movie, they opted for making more ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' sequels until their traditional animation studios were closed for good. From there, they changed to computer-traditional mix, resulting in a more vivid color scheme, but considerably better quality animation.* The first ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' movie was a hit. ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek 2}}'' grossed almost twice as highly and is considered by many to be [[EvenBetterSequel even better]]. ''WesternAnimation/ShrekTheThird'' is more polarizing in comparison and muddied up Creator/DreamWorksAnimation's plans for a 5-film series (though they're still hoping for the 5th one). Consensus on ''WesternAnimation/ShrekForeverAfter'' is that it's at least far better than the third.* ''WesternAnimation/TheNineLivesOfFritzTheCat'' was not written or directed by Creator/RalphBakshi, the maker of ''WesternAnimation/FritzTheCat'', or Robert Crumb, who created [[ComicBook/FritzTheCat the original comic]]. The only people involved with the first film who returned for the sequel are producer Steve Krantz and voice actor Skip Hinnant. Even Duke, one of the characters from the first film, is [[TheOtherDarrin voiced by a different actor]]..* ''WesternAnimation/AlphaAndOmega'' seems to be getting this treatment. As of October 2015 there are four sequels to the original, with three more in the works! This is par for the course for Richard Rich films - ''WesternAnimation/TheSwanPrincess'', despite being a minor bomb critically and financially, got four sequels. Being made with [[NoBudget fairly low budgets]] and based on films that weren't very good to begin with, they tend to make the Creator/{{Disney}} cheapquels look like high art.* The BigDamnMovie of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}},'' ''Bender's Big Score'', is pretty well-regarded in the fanbase, and places well in appraisals of the series. The succeeding three films vary in reception, but are generally seen as being much worse. The general consensus is that ''Bender's Big Score'' feels like a movie, while the other three feel like overstretched episodes of the TV show that probably wouldn't have made for very good episodes to begin with.* The first ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' has a respectable Rotten Tomatoes score of 77%. The first sequel got a rotten 57%, and it just went down from there (45%, 37% and 12%; the last of these, ''Collision Course'', is considered one of the worst films of 2016 and is the first ''Ice Age'' movie to get WebVideo/AniMat's "Seal of Garbage"; it also [[BoxOfficeBomb bombed in the domestic box office]] in the 2016 Summer Bomb Buster).* While not reprehensible, ''WesternAnimation/{{Rio 2}}'' is agreed on by both critics and audiences to be weaker than the original ''WesternAnimation/{{Rio}}''.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]* ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1990'' was considered [[FirstInstallmentWins a nice piece of 1990s pop culture]]. The [[Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesIITheSecretOfTheOoze second film]] wasn't quite as well-received due to being DenserAndWackier, but it still had a few entertaining moments, and it has its fans. [[Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesIII The third film]], however, was bashed mercilessly by critics and fans alike (fans were actually far more ruthless on it than ''Series/SiskelAndEbert'' ever were to the trilogy as a whole), and it's viewed as the worst of the three by a healthy margin; it swept the Turtles off the big screen until 2007, and it would take until 2014 for another live-action ''TMNT'' film to surface; it does not have any continuity to the others.* There were six films in ''Film/TheThinMan'' series. The first got a Best Picture nomination and is still remembered as a classic. The subsequent movies have been progressively less acclaimed, going from the "pretty good" second movie to the "terrible" sixth one.* Parodied InUniverse in ''Film/TropicThunder''. Tugg Speedman stars in the ''Scorcher'' series, which revolve around the Earth ceasing to spin and becoming a giant fireball. The 6th one, ''Scorcher VI: Global Meltdown'', changed the fate into a frozen wasteland because the previous films had exhausted the previously mentioned concept. Here's the trailer:-->'''Trailer Announcer:''' In 2013, when the Earth's rotation came to a halt, the world called on the one man who could make a difference.\\''[Speedman is shown standing on a blasted cliffside, and everything in the background is on fire. He has a baby in one arm and a rifle in the other]''\\When it happened again, the world called on him once more. And no one saw it coming. Three. More. Times! Now, the one man who made a difference five times before, is about to make a difference again. Only this time, it's different.\\''[Speedman is shown standing on an iceberg, and everything in the background is frozen. He has a set of twins on him and he's holding two rifles]''\\'''Tugg Speedman:''' Who left the fridge open?\\'''Trailer Announcer:''' ''[voice over]'' Tugg Speedman. ''Scorcher VI: Global Meltdown''.\\'''Tugg Speedman:''' {{Here we go again}}. Again...* Most {{slasher movie}}s tend to suffer this fate.** At the time of writing (2012) there are eight ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'' movies and [[Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet2010 a remake]], eight ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}'' movies and [[Film/{{Halloween 2007}} a remake]] with [[Film/HalloweenII2009 a sequel]] to that remake, and ten ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' movies and [[Film/FridayThe13th2009 a remake]]. And that's just the names most horror fans would be familiar with. As expected, the quality of the sequels of these franchises varies widely.** One particularly painful example: The original ''Film/SleepawayCamp'' was surprisingly deep for its genre, and possessed a genuinely unexpected (yet not nonsensical) TwistEnding that ''hasn't'' succumbed to ItWasHisSled. The sequels, by comparison, are almost parodies of their predecessor. According to writer/director Robert Hiltzik, only the 2008 sequel, ''Film/ReturnToSleepawayCamp'', is canon (he had little to nothing to do with ''Film/SleepawayCampIIUnhappyCampers'' and ''Film/SleepawayCampIIITeenageWasteland'').*** Zig-zagged with this franchise- most horror fans have come around to enjoying II and III greatly in the modern day, whereas this trope more applies to ''Return.''* ''Franchise/{{Scream}}'':** ''Film/{{Scream 1996}}'' is considered a great movie. ''Film/{{Scream 2}}'' is pretty awesome too. Then comes ''Film/{{Scream 3}}'', which gives plenty of reasons to be treated as TheScrappy by critics and fans. ''Film/{{Scream 4}}'' is, thankfully, pretty good again.** Also occurs in-universe with the ''Stab'' series.* ''{{Film/Alien}}'' is almost universally considered as an outstanding horror/science-fiction film, the sequel ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' was even more succesful with both critics and audience and is considered by many as equal or superior; the third film ''Film/{{Alien 3}}'' is not necessarily a bad film, but is considered inferior to the previous films with an "obscene" HappyEndingOverride. [[Film/AlienResurrection The fourth film]], however, was disastrous and is loathed by fans of the saga and co-writer Creator/JossWhedon; it halted independent ''Alien'' films until 2012's ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'', and also mostly halted the careers of the producers and director. * ''Film/BattleRoyale 2'' suffered heavily from this. Even the most enthusiastic fans of the sequel will admit that it isn't anywhere near the caliber of the original (whether it be novel, manga or movie).* ''Film/SDarko''. Despite having one actress from ''Film/DonnieDarko'', Daveigh Chase, returning for this sequel, most ''Donnie Darko'' fans [[FanonDiscontinuity won't even acknowledge its existence]].* The ''Film/PoliceAcademy'' series. The first movie was a commercial success, and jumpstarted the careers of several actors who would go on to bigger projects (Steve Guttenberg, Kim Cattrall, Bobcat Goldthwait), but as the sequels progressed, the humor became increasingly lowbrow and cast members started leaving throughout the franchise. By the time the seventh and final film, ''Mission to Moscow'', was released in 1994, only a handful of original characters remained, and it failed to surpass the $200,000 mark. It's the last theatrical film directed by Alan Metter, who disowned it in the end.* Most {{superhero}} film franchises follow the same formula: The first film introduces the characters and usually goes through the [[SuperHeroOrigin origin story]]. It meets with general approval. The second film, not being burdened by the need to rehash all that old stuff, is very good and is considered by many to be better than the original. The third film makes you wonder why they didn't stop at two. If a fourth film is even made, it makes the third film look like ''Film/CitizenKane''. Then the series is dead for several years until another sequel is made with massive {{retcon}} (sometimes to the point of a {{reboot}}).** The ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'' follows this formula in an odd way. The first two are considered to be stunning critical and commercial successes. The third film has a massive BrokenBase, though it remains the most successful Spider-Man film to date. Then ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'' reboots the franchise and is met with a decent reception, though it made a whole new BrokenBase. Then it happens ''again'', with ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2'' being overall regarded as an average movie at best to being considered a complete failure at worst, causing Sony to cancel the rest of the series and make plans for another reboot with a helping hand from Marvel.** Franchise/{{Batman}} and Franchise/{{Superman}} have taken separate paths after their fifth installments, with ''Film/BatmanBegins'' a massive success and ''Film/SupermanReturns'' a ContestedSequel. One of the frequently-raised criticisms with ''Returns'' is that the producers didn't seem to be able to make up their minds as to whether they were actually making a continuation of the earlier film sequence, or whether they were making a completely fresh start. While the Batman series later went on to produce ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', one of the most popular movies ever, the Superman series enacted a much more firm reboot with ''Film/ManOfSteel''.** ''Film/XMen'' had two beloved movies, followed by a ContestedSequel. Since continuing after ''[[Film/XMenTheLastStand The Last Stand]]'' would be hard, they decided to make prequels instead. First was ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'', which also divided everyone; then came ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', but it completely {{averted|Trope}} sequelitis and is now considered the best in the series since ''X2: X-Men United''. Following that was a sequel/stand-alone story to ''Wolverine'', simply titled ''Film/TheWolverine'', which was considered a far better film than its predecessor. Then came indirect ''The Last Stand'' sequel / direct ''First Class'' sequel ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'', which was not only considered a better film [[SurprisinglyImprovedSequel to both of]] [[EvenBetterSequel its predecessors]], but was also hailed by critics as one of the series's best films. History however repeats itself with ''Film/XMenApocalypse'' being a ContestedSequel.** ''Film/IronMan2'' is often considered at least entertaining, but not as fresh or spectacular as its predecessor. Reasons for this consensus usually include feeling far too much like an advertisement for the upcoming ''[[Film/TheAvengers2012 Avengers]]'' movie than an Iron Man story capable of standing on its own, very boring villains, numerous plot holes and loosely adapting Tony Stark's "Demon in a Bottle" arc and [[PlayedForLaughs playing it for laughs]]. ''Film/IronMan3'', on the other hand, is considered a slightly better film, [[BerserkButton controversy regarding how]] [[TheReveal the villain was handled]] aside.** This formula was [[TropeMaker first set]] by Franchise/{{Superman}}. 1978's ''Film/{{Superman}}: TheMovie'' told his origin story, was quite successful and today is regarded as a TropeCodifier that proved superheroes could credibly carry serious films. It was followed by ''Film/SupermanII'', which also got warm reviews but was plagued by CreativeDifferences between director and producers. ''Film/SupermanIII'', in turn, is an uneven mess of a film with Creator/RichardPryor of all people clumsily stealing the show. And then there was ''Film/SupermanIVTheQuestForPeace'', an {{Anvilicious}}, SpecialEffectsFailure-filled, unmitigated ''disaster'' that completely bombed both critically and commercially. It was ''[[FranchiseKiller 19 years]]'' before another Superman movie was released-- ''Film/SupermanReturns'', which pointedly [[CanonDiscontinuity erased III and IV from its continuity]]. ''Superman IV'' also erased the career of Mark Pillow, who moved on to being a family man, and helped towards the implosion of Creator/TheCannonGroup.* Averted with Creator/SergioLeone's western trilogy. Though the first two films, ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars'' and ''Film/ForAFewDollarsMore'' are generally considered to be rather good films, the third film ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly'' is generally considered the best in the series, is the most remembered of the Dollars Trilogy, and launched the career of Creator/ClintEastwood. Oddly enough, however, as it wasn't actually made as a trilogy, but were marketed as such by distributor United Artists, who were looking for a strong angle for the films as a trilogy. * ''Film/ScaryMovie'' expressed the tagline, ''No mercy. No shame. No sequel'', but as we all well know, did have one anyway (with the tagline "[[ILied We lied]]"). It got closer back to its roots of satirizing horror movies in the third, but then stepped back again and had that Creator/TomCruise couch jump parody in the fourth. A fifth film happened, but mostly everyone from the previous films is out of it, and rarely would anyone say that that's a good parody. The spinoffs of the franchise have been even worse, starting with ''Film/DateMovie'', billed as "from [[Creator/SeltzerAndFriedberg two]] of the six writers of ''Scary Movie''", and somehow running on to three more. * ''Film/{{Tremors}}'': An interesting case. The first movie was a semi-BlackComedy with Creator/KevinBacon. Not having to pay Bacon's salary meant ''Film/Tremors2Aftershocks'' could afford lots more StuffBlowingUp. ''Film/Tremors3BackToPerfection'' is notable for reassembling the entire (surviving) supporting cast of the first, with no characters PutOnABus.* ''Film/AmericanPie'' descended into this for a while. The ''American Pie Presents'' series were direct to DVD releases with predictable results. The sole main cast member reprising a role from ''any'' of the first 3 movies is Eugene Levy. Inverted with ''American Reunion'', which brought back the principal cast and was a much better film than the DVD cash-ins that preceded.* ''Franchise/TheCrow'': ** ''ComicBook/TheCrow'' was a powerful, emotionally-gripping comic book, that had an equally powerful [[Film/TheCrow film adaptation]]--with a kickass soundtrack, to boot. It had several sequels in both media, and none of them were anything close to the original, or even enjoyable. Thus, ''The Crow'' uniquely has severe Sequelitis in two media.** The second movie, ''Film/TheCrowCityOfAngels'', in particular, suffered - tortuously - from the writers attempting to take the "framework" of the original story and try to swap out the plot details, replacing the original compelling story with a particularly unsubtle morass of "IKEA Pathos." That, and apparently no one on the film team even ''noticed'' the visual aesthetic of the original, since not even the barest effort was made to retain it. Add to this wooden acting, a notable dearth of memorable lines or dialogue, an obvious, over-the-top AssPull ending, the utter absence of verisimilitude between the visual (and linguistic) environment depicted in the film and the real-life Los Angeles it was allegedly based on, and a particularly blatant [[DroppedABridgeOnHim bridge drop]] at the end, and you have a shameful attempt at remaking - even cloning - The Crow, with essentially ''none'' of the things that made the original great. You might say the series CameBackWrong.* ''Film/{{Jaws 2}}'', ''Film/Jaws3D'', ''Film/JawsTheRevenge'', ad nauseam. Ken Begg's series of reviews chronicles the slide in quality from ''[[http://www.jabootu.com/jaws.htm Jaws]]'' to ''[[http://www.jabootu.com/jaws2.htm Jaws 2]]'' (which he admits is merely inferior and mediocre, but much better than the knock-offs and the next sequels) to ''[[http://www.jabootu.com/jaws3-D.htm Jaws 3-D]]'' to ''[[http://www.jabootu.com/jaws4.htm Jaws: The Revenge]]'' (which bottomed out at 0% on RT, including a zero star rating from Creator/RogerEbert, and ensnared the careers of a good chunk of its crew). So much that it was mocked in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'': a holographic ''Jaws 19'' poster can be seen during the 2015 sequence. Which makes oddly prescient [[http://www.peterbenchley.com/articles/peter-benchley-the-father-jaws-and-other-tales-the-deep a move by Peter Benchley]], who wrote [[Literaure/{{Jaws}} the original novel]]. Prior to the film's release, the royalties were late. He called his agent, she replied that there were negotiations on sequel right. “Sequel rights!? I don’t care about sequels; who’ll ever want to make a sequel to a movie about a fish? Sell them the rights to anything they want ... my life as an astronaut, ''any''thing. I need money!” Eventually Benchley's sequel rights were exchanged for one-time payments for each new installment, making the original author someone not to blame for the decay. Parodied again around "Back To The Future Day" in October 2015, when, to celebrate the gag from ''II'', Universal released a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl092whRLlI fake trailer]] for the aforementioned ''Jaws 19''.* With a title like ''Film/TheNeverendingStory'', one would expect the movie to have at least a few sequels or follow-ups. The first movie is a very nice fantasy film; the second movie is not ''as'' good as the first one (with a dramatic drop in production values plus a zero on Rotten Tomatoes), but still watchable, at least compared to the third movie, which [[OvertookTheSeries had to invent a plot out of whole cloth]] and ended up with a lot of cringeworthy sitcom-style humor plus OOC characters and [[FranchiseKiller shut the book on ''The Neverending Story'']] (it's also an OldShame to villain actor Creator/JackBlack). That third film only got a limited release in the States after the second bombed there, and eventually went DirectToVideo by Miramax/Disney instead of Warner.* The first ''Film/WeekendAtBernies'' is an amusing little comedy, with Terry Kiser [[EnsembleDarkhorse stealing the show]] as the eponymous dead guy. Then they went and made a sequel. The female character one of the heroes spent the entire first movie obsessing over/wooing vanishes without even the most cursory attempt at {{Hand Wav|e}}ing, and it was all downhill from there. Some viewers felt that ''Film/WeekendAtBerniesII'' pulled off the rare feat of being so unbelievably stupid that it came back around the other side and was SoUnfunnyItsFunny. Referenced in ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', as evidence that Lily is a "laugh-slut":--> '''Ted:''' "Remember that time we heard her laughing, and we thought she was watching ''Weekend at Bernie's'', but it turned out she was watching ''Weekend at Bernie's II''?" * Opinions are divided over whether ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark'' or ''Film/JurassicParkIII'' is worse, although the latter usually wins out in such arguments. Neither of them holds a candle to [[Film/JurassicPark the original]], despite several actors [[MoneyDearBoy inexplicably]] agreeing to reprise their roles. Some fans regard TLW as a worthy sequel to JP though with [=JP3=] usually regarded as the abomination. Averted with the fourth film, ''Film/JurassicWorld'', which has been generally better-liked among fans than the previous sequels and was an even bigger financial success than the original film (though critical opinions have varied considerably).* ''Film/AirplaneIITheSequel'', which ''wasn't'' produced by James Abrahams and the Zucker brothers who did the brilliant ''Film/{{Airplane}}''. Most of its jokes and plot were re-hashed from the original movie, Leslie Nielsen didn't return, and it did so badly at the box office that the planned second sequel was canceled. The best parts were the courtroom scene and the [[AdamWesting self-parodying performance]] by Creator/WilliamShatner.* ''Film/TheMatrix'' was generally well-received and a major game-changer for action movies. The second and third movies are usually seen as overly long and pretentious (though some though ''Reloaded'' was okay), while the prequel ''Anime/TheAnimatrix'' ranges from decent to bad since it's an anthology of nine short films based on The Matrix, with the CGI ''The Second Renaissance'' considered the best (reason to purchase the rest). The other eight vary.* Movies based on video games aren't exempt from this rule, either, even though very few of them get sequels in the first place (and [[VideoGameMoviesSuck usually deservedly so]]). Just ask anyone who paid to watch ''Film/MortalKombatAnnihilation'' or ''Film/LaraCroftTombRaiderTheCradleOfLife''.* ''Film/GhostbustersII''** The film fell victim to this, as the plot reads like [[RecycledScript a Mad Lib rewrite of the first movie]]: An ancient (god/warlock) is resurrected in modern New York, possesses Dana Barret's nebbish (neighbor/boss), and needs (her/her baby) as part of its plot to destroy New York. She gradually falls for Peter's quirky charm, while the rest of the Ghostbusters try to convince the skeptical mayor and a sleazy (EPA agent/mayoral aide) that the world's in danger, until the big finale has the heroes facing off with the (god/warlock) in a gothic (skyscraper/library) now overrun by evil, while a giant walking mascot (terrorizes/saves) the city by stepping on things. It's all made even more implausible given how easily all the world-changing events of the first movie seem to have been [[WeirdnessCensor swept under the rug]], and the end result was so lackluster, both critically and financially, that the director and other three stars were completely turned off from Creator/DanAykroyd's plans for a third movie.** Atari released a ''Ghostbusters'' video game that reunited the cast and acts as the third story. It's been well received. It expands on things from the first movie, provides closure on the Librarian ghost and explains where the mood slime from [=GB2=] came from. The experience was so good that true ''Ghostbusters 3'' was in the works, but sadly abandoned after Creator/HaroldRamis' passing (the 2016 ContinuityReboot, for all its controversy, falls outside the range of this trope on technical grounds).* ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}''** The series had one of the longest cases of Sequelitis ever. The series started out gritty and realistic, but gradually became more over-the-top to the point where [[Film/{{Rocky}} the first movie]] won an Oscar for best picture and [[Film/RockyV the fifth]], after a drawn-out decline, is generally regarded as terrible. After a 16-year SequelGap, [[Film/RockyBalboa a sixth entry]] was made, and successfully took the series back to its roots, as well as providing closure to Rocky's career.** Parodied by a sight gag in ''Film/AirplaneIITheSequel'', where you can see a movie poster showing a 90-year old man in boxing trunks and gloves, with the caption "''Rocky XXXVIII''". Also parodied in ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'' (where the whole Trope is poked fun at), where a newscaster claims the film critic will be critiquing "Rocky Five... ''Thousand''."* The ''Film/AustinPowers'' series, once it became insanely popular (i.e. by [[Film/AustinPowersTheSpyWhoShaggedMe the first sequel]]), started becoming a caricature of [[Film/AustinPowersInternationalManOfMystery the first movie]], with its VulgarHumor and especially their tendency to take gags that were most memorable from the previous movie and exaggerating them in the next. The first was intended to be an AffectionateParody of the movies Mike Myers used to watch with his father. After the first became a cultural phenomenon on home video, more writers were brought in to create something DenserAndWackier. By the time [[Film/AustinPowersInGoldmember the third movie]] came around, the series was repeatedly breaking the FourthWall and just generally making a mockery of itself. Still, some fans regret that the token CharacterDevelopment Austin went through in the first movie [[AesopAmnesia had to be systematically scrapped]] for the sequels to work.* Each ''Franchise/DieHard'' film after the first became slightly less believable than its predecessor, resulting in John [=McClane=] being MadeOfIron by ''[[Film/LiveFreeOrDieHard Die Hard 4]]'', and nobody ever bleeding, despite the original's highly praised realism (though the [[{{Bowdlerise}} decision to lower to PG-13]] is to blame for the BloodlessCarnage). The plot is as convoluted as in the campier Bond films, as well as the marriage he was trying to save in the first film getting only a cursory mention (as being long over). Though up until 2013, only the fourth movie entered ContestedSequel status for being the apex of SerialEscalation. Then came ''Film/AGoodDayToDieHard'', a fifth movie which did not split the fanbase regarding doing everything wrong. Lampshaded twice in ''Film/DieHard2: Die Harder'': ''"Another basement, another elevator--how can the same shit happen to the same guy twice?"''* Released in 1989, ''Film/{{Kickboxer}}'' was a fine action film that did well at the box office and helped propel Jean Claude Van Damme to stardom. And then came the 1991 sequel, which Van Damme did not return for. Van Damme's character... and the paralyzed brother he fought to avenge... were both murdered before the events of ''Kickboxer 2'', and the protagonist is a previously-unmentioned third brother. Then THAT was followed by three direct-to-video sequels, in which fewer and fewer actors returned to reprise their roles... and by the time the fifth film came out, absolutely no one came back, putting it squarely in InNameOnly territory. Easy to see why most fans tend to ignore everything after the first one.* ''Film/{{Friday}}'' was a great comedy with good performances from Ice Cube as Craig and Chris Tucker as Smokey, the latter of whom is widely thought to be the funniest part of the film. A sequel, ''Next Friday'', was released in 2000 and is generally considered inferior - mainly due to the lack of Smokey (Tucker had chosen to do ''Film/RushHour'' instead and had become a born-again Christian after making ''Money Talks''), who was replaced by Mike Epps as Day-Day - but the movie still has its defenders. 2002's ''Friday After Next'', however, has been almost universally panned.* The first ''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDead'' is an almost perfect mix of black comedy and horror and is also a {{deconstruction}} and/or AffectionateParody of Romero's "Dead" series. It's a CultClassic. ''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDeadPartII'' uses a lot more comedy than the first which makes it less scary. ''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDead3'' disregards continuity from the first two and makes it DarkerAndEdgier. More scary but without the charm. ''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDeadNecropolis'' and ''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDeadRaveToTheGrave'' aren't well-regarded at all.* The ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' films often fall under this considering there are [[LongRunner 27 sequels]] to the [[Film/{{Gojira}} original Japanese film]] and [[Film/{{Godzilla 1998}} two]] [[Film/{{Godzilla 2014}} remakes]]. The first film is regarded as a classic and a few sequels are beloved by the fans. However, many films (especially the ones made in the 1960s-1970s) are considered to be SoBadItsGood.* Two trivia questions. '''1.''' How many sequels to Creator/JimCarrey movies has Jim Carrey appeared in? (Answer: 2 - ''Film/AceVenturaWhenNatureCalls'' and ''Film/DumbAndDumberTo''.) '''2.''' How many sequels to Jim Carrey movies has he ''not'' appeared in? (Answer: 4 - ''Film/SonOfTheMask'', ''{{Film/Dumb and Dumber}}er'', ''Film/EvanAlmighty'' and ''Ace Ventura Jr.'') Jim Carrey so thoroughly detested working on ''When Nature Calls'' that he declared he would never do a sequel ever again (as for ''Film/BatmanForever'' and ''Film/KickAss2'', neither followed on from one of his past films, and in the case of ''Forever'' predated the ''Ace Ventura'' sequel). He entered [[Film/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents one movie]] because it would be a series he'd enjoy doing... but [[DevelopmentHell it'll be hard to have a sequel]]. As above, Carrey eventually broke this rule for a proper sequel to ''Dumb and Dumber'', though given ''Dumb and Dumber To''[='=]s negative reception from critics[[note]]Though in fairness, the first film wasn't positively received by critics at first either, though it's [[VindicatedByHistory garnered a more favorable reception over the years]].[[/note]], it remains to be seen if Carrey makes any future sequels.* ''Film/ShockTreatment'' was originally planned as a sequel to ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'', but was re-written as SomethingCompletelyDifferent after Creator/TimCurry refused to be typecast as Frank. The second movie features Brad and Janet, but the events of ''Rocky Horror'' are never mentioned. Taken on its own, it has its merits, but proved a massive disappointment for people expecting an actual sequel. Point of clarity: ''Shock Treatment'' was not the original plan for a sequel, that being ''Rocky Horror Shows His Heels'', which never ended up happening. ''Shock Treatment'' did keep Brad and Janet (albeit played by [[TheOtherDarrin different actors]]), and some of the subtext to their relationship troubles can be taken to have been caused by the first movie. Also, Judge Oliver Wright probably was the Criminologist, making Charles Gray the only actor to continue playing the same character ([[WildMassGuessing unless you consider the [=McKinleys=] to actually be Riff and Magenta returned to Earth for some strange reason]]... also, Bert Shnict was supposedly Dr. Scott in earlier versions of the script). Besides, [[MemeticMutation it's not a sequel, it's an equal]].* ''Film/TheKarateKid'' movies:** Initially averted, then played straight. ''Film/TheKarateKidPartII'' was different enough from [[Film/TheKarateKid1984 the first movie]] to avoid falling into this trope, but ''Film/TheKarateKidPartIII'' was much less appreciated. Then ''Film/TheNextKarateKid'' became a FranchiseKiller.** The original film received a remake in ''Film/TheKarateKid2010'', which aside from the basic plot layout and the name is a ''Karate Kid'' film InNameOnly. As being set in China, there is little if any ''karate'' (being a predominately Japanese practice); it's now ''kung fu'', taught by Creator/JackieChan, yet it's still called ''The Karate Kid'' in the US. [[note]]To the filmmakers' credit, the original title was changed to ''The Kung Fu Dream'' in China and ''Best Kid'' in Japan and South Korea (though the original film also was renamed as well when released in those territories) and cast members on set referred to the film as ''The Kung Fu Kid''. Sony Pictures was also considering changing the title, but one of the producers for the film (who was also a producer for the original film) insisted on keeping the name.[[/note]] Despite this, it's considered a good film.* In the ''Franchise/StarWars'' series, this started with ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', which wasn't considered quite as good as the [[Film/ANewHope two]] [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack movies]] before it, but still good. Then came ''pre''quelitis, with ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' and ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' widely considered the two weakest films in the series. ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', however, was generally thought to be [[SurprisinglyImprovedSequel an improvement]], but that's not saying much given the competition. Fortunately, the next in the series, ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', is generally believed to be a return to form.* ''Franchise/EvilDead''** Averted by the movies, which stayed great. There's a case that they even got better as they went. Though if you pay attention at the beginning of the [[Film/EvilDead2 second movie]], one notices several elements were rehashed in the exposition.** WordOfGod was that rights issues kept them from re-using footage from the [[Film/TheEvilDead1981 original movie]], so they had to rewrite and re-film the HowWeGotHere opening sequence from scratch.* ''Film/TheFlyII'' is generally regarded to have ''none'' of what made the first one great.* The ''Film/{{Scanners}}'' franchise. The original film was a landmark in sci-fi horror, and had David Cronenberg and Creator/MichaelIronside doing some of their best work... but then came a pair of DirectToVideo sequels that stopped going for shock value and settled on B-movie cheese focusing on various scanners' unsuccessful attempts to start a revolution, backed by shoddy effects and weak performances by the main cast. This later produced a spinoff series, ''Film/ScannerCop'', which also went DTV and just had more of the same.* Just ask ''Franchise/{{Highlander}}'' fans about the sequels, and you'll be told, "There '''should have been''' only one [movie]!" Part of the issue is that each film tries to retcon the previous movie out of existence (with the partial exception of ''Highlander II'', which merely retcons the first one's first thirty minutes).* ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'' movies escalated the slapstick comedy, wacky disguises, and whatnot quite a bit in the 1970s entries, even bringing in science fiction elements in ''Film/ThePinkPantherStrikesAgain''. There were also new female leads in each entry, whether they became Inspector Clouseau's love interest or not. The series also hit FranchiseZombie status with ''Film/RevengeOfThePinkPanther'', which United Artists commissioned for summer 1978. Still, they were all hits -- the franchise jumped the rails in TheEighties when director-writer-producer Creator/BlakeEdwards attempted to continue the series in spite of the death of Creator/PeterSellers, who played Clouseau. It turned out that without [[JustHereForGodzilla Sellers]], people weren't interested in more of the same hijinks.* ''Film/RoboCop1987'' (and its sequel, ''Film/RoboCop2'') were violent, edgy and full of satire on mid-[[TheEighties '80s]] corporate culture. While the second film was derided for focusing too much on shock value and having less of the satirical humor, the franchise was still doing pretty well for itself (an animated series was created during this time, and the films performed very well at the box office). Unfortunately, studio executives (likely smelling [[MerchandiseDriven several marketing opportunities]]) toned down the violence in the third film, ''Film/RoboCop3'', to appeal to younger viewers. While there were some elements that remained from the previous films (Basil Poledouris' score, a return to the silver armor from the first film, most of the [[AnyoneCanDie surviving cast members]] returning and some of the satire), the end result was too juvenile for most audiences, and the film bombed both financially and critically. Although there were attempts to resurrect the franchise over the years (a mid-'90s Canadian-made TV series bombed after one season, a late-'90s [[AnimatedAdaptation cartoon]] was critically panned and a miniseries [=[=][[CaliforniaDoubling also filmed in Canada]][=]=] was made-for-TV, a [[Film/RoboCop2014 2014 reboot]] was seen as SoOkayItsAverage), it never really flew with audiences. * ''Film/InterviewWithTheVampire'' vs. ''Film/QueenOfTheDamned''. The two movies were made over ten years apart, with completely different studios, directors, and actors. The themes and tones of the movies were vastly different, and no references were made to characters or plots from the first film, but it was explicitly set afterwards. Both movies being relatively self-contained, [=QotD=] was less of a sequel and more like the closest thing to a ContinuityReboot without actually doing so. [[Film/InterviewWithTheVampire Interview]] was based on [[Novel/InterviewWithTheVampire the novel of the same name]], while [[Film/QueenOfTheDamned Queen of the Damned]] was an attempt to squeeze [[Literature/TheVampireLestat two]] [[Literature/QueenOfTheDamned separate]] novels into one film.* ''Film/{{Grease}}'' is a hugely popular [[TheFifties 50s nostalgia]] musical funfest. ''Film/{{Grease 2}}'' has only a few characters returning from the original (Frenchie, Eugene, the principal and her assistant, and the coach. All brief roles.) and introduces Sandy's cousin Michael in some weak attempt to connect the two movies. The plot is a GenderFlip of the first movie's plot and the results are... well, [[FanonDiscontinuity most Grease fans like to pretend it doesn't exist]]. Incidentally, ''Grease 2'' unwittingly stopped the franchise from experiencing what would likely be more sequelitis. There were plans for two more movies and a TV series, but they were scrapped after ''Grease 2'' flopped.* ''Franchise/{{Saw}}''** Fans debate whether the series has suffered from Sequelitis, and if so, at what point. This argument is closely tied to the one over Jigsaw's successors. Some fans believe that the series should've stopped at the [[Film/SawIII third movie]], which acted as a solid conclusion to what had been until then a trilogy. Others feel that the [[Film/SawIV fourth movie]] was still good, but that the [[Film/SawV fifth]] was the series' [[JumpingTheShark jump the shark]] moment. Oddly enough, even they usually agree that the [[Film/SawVI sixth film]] was a surprising improvement over the fifth. Opinion on the [[Film/Saw3D seventh (and final) film]] is too wildly varied to pin down any fan consensus. A few believe that there shouldn't have been any sequels, or that only the second film counts as a proper continuation.** Honestly, the series '''[[FranchiseZombie was]]''' supposed to stop at the third film, but when Lionsgate saw how much money it was bringing in, they demanded that the script to ''Film/SawIII'' be changed to allow more movies to be made. The suckiness of ''Film/SawIV'' and ''[[Film/SawV V]]'' and sequelitis in general are the fault of ExecutiveMeddling.* The ''Film/JuOn''/''Film/TheGrudge'' film series, which began life as Takashi Shimizu's V-Cinema TV special but is now up to a second special (which recycled most of the first), two theatrical Japanese films, two Japanese shorts, an American remake, and two American sequels. Special honors to the first American film because it reenacted, almost scene-for-scene in some cases, the exact same plot as the first Japanese theatrical movie, though somehow keeps the main star/character (Creator/SarahMichelleGellar) alive through the end.* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' begun with a SleeperHit, and then turned into a TwoPartTrilogy that divided many due to an [[GambitPileup increasingly complicated plot with]] [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder plenty of backstabbing]] and missed opportunities. The TrilogyCreep got even more dissers, [[ContestedSequel though some at least appreciated]] that there was an attempt to make the plot easier to follow.* ''Film/TheRing'' franchise has suffered from this disease. While each of the three "original" films has been well-received (Japanese, American, and Korean, respectively), their sequels have met with various degrees of scorn and failure to the point that the very first sequel, a film adaptation of the novel's follow-up ''Spiral'', is considered so bad it's CanonDiscontinuity by the Japanese producers, who went on to make ''The Ring 2'' instead.* The original ''Film/{{Species}}'' was a decent (if not spectacular) sci-fi horror film that had Natasha Henstridge running around (mostly naked, to boot) while a team of scientists tried to stop her. [[Film/SpeciesII A sequel]] was inexplicably made five years later that combined a nonsensical plot (the scientists clone the original alien, then act shocked when she escapes to mate with another member of her species), cheesy effects and a cast that appeared to be going through the motions, and the following TV movie, ''Film/SpeciesIII'', was made by filmmakers who thought the entire franchise was composed of gratuitous violence and sex. The fourth film, ''Film/SpeciesTheAwakening'', seems to be an odd inversion, however - most viewers seem to regard it as a decent B-movie.* ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'': The [[Film/TheTerminator first]] was iconic. The [[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay second]], possibly one of the [[EvenBetterSequel single greatest sequels of all time]]. The [[Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines third]] was one hell of a ContestedSequel, and resulted in a [[Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles TV series]] being made on the principle that T3 [[AlternateContinuity never happened]]. The [[Film/TerminatorSalvation fourth]], while visually impressive, lacked substance and ended up being an underperformer at the box office, which then led to the [[CreatorKiller death of its production company]] and [[ChannelHop the rights being sold off]]. On June 2013, Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger and the producers officially confirmed that a fifth movie would come out in 2015 and it would be the first in a stand-alone trilogy. The movie, called ''Film/TerminatorGenisys'', retcons the events of the first four movies with time-travel, but it '''still''' suffered a case of Sequelitis, leaving ITS future up in the air.* A few ''Film/JamesBond'' films suffered from this, specially ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'' (the [[StrictlyFormula formula]] is starting to age), ''Film/DiamondsAreForever'', ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'', ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'' (all three for being overtly stupid [[note]] ''Golden Gun'' was also a CreatorKiller for director Guy Hamilton [[/note]]), ''Film/AViewToAKill'' (Bond is too old, girl is annoying, [[TheyCopiedItSoItSucks plot is a rehash]] [[note]] Roger Moore departed the film business altogether after this one and views it as an OldShame; said girl's theatrical career was derailed after her performance and prima donna behavior earned her and the film/series it's first Razzie nomination [[/note]]), ''Film/DieAnotherDay'' (silliness, dodgy special effects [[note]] It's also a FranchiseKiller due to it and the ''Austin Powers'' trilogy convincing the Broccolis to reboot the series, and helped towards the end of director Lee Tamahori's career [[/note]]), ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'' (too serious for its own good, convoluted plot), and ''Film/{{Spectre}}'' (plot is too incoherent).* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' has the "[[StarTrekMovieCurse odd-number curse]]" - [[Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture the first]] (which can be considered a sequel to [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries the series]]), [[Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock third]] (this one is actually alright, but still not as good as 2), [[Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier fifth]] [[note]] This one earned the Worst Picture Razzie for 1989 and beamed away any ideas of Bill Shatner directing another film ever again [[/note]], [[Film/StarTrekGenerations seventh]] and [[Film/StarTrekInsurrection ninth]] films are considered letdowns. It was broken when the [[Film/StarTrekNemesis tenth]] was a critical and commercial disappointment [[note]] This nearly killed the franchise and BigBad actor Tom Hardy outright, but still succeeded in killing ''The Next Generation'' branch, the writing careers of crew member Brent Spiner and John Logan, and the directing career of Stuart Baird; Hardy and three other ''TNG'' regulars all have a serious hatred for the film [[/note]], leading to a [[Film/StarTrek wildly successful reboot]] (though some try to make the curse still work by considering the AffectionateParody ''Film/GalaxyQuest'' the tenth movie). ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'' got a decent critical reception, but the overall opinion was either that it didn't live up to the first reboot (if you loved the first reboot), or that Gene Roddenberry is spinning in his grave (if you didn't), and contains a rather infamous [[TheUntwist Untwist]] that those trying to to justify the (''Quest''-adjusted) curse can point to.* ''Film/BeCool''. The sequel to ''Film/GetShorty'' was loosely based on the novel that was the sequel to the original ''Get Shorty'' novel, but was so crammed full of {{actor allusion}}s, [[TheCameo cameos]] and industry in-jokes (for both film and music) that it had none of the spark of the first movie.* The sequel to ''Film/MissCongeniality'' suffers from sequelitis, as many a fan (girl) was probably very disappointed that the second film did not see the return of [[spoiler:Benjamin Bratt as Eric Matthews.]]* ''Film/{{Carrie|1976}}'' is considered one of the landmark horror films of TheSeventies, and its success helped to establish Creator/StephenKing, the writer of the book it was based on, as one of the biggest names in horror literature. Twenty-three years later comes ''Film/TheRageCarrie2'', a film that, while most definitely enjoyable in a certain way, fails to hold a candle to the original, and was a box office disappointment. Part of this may stem from the fact that ''The Rage'' was [[DolledUpInstallment originally written as a separate film]] called ''The Curse'', and was turned into a ''Carrie'' sequel presumably after somebody saw [[FollowTheLeader the obvious similarities]] between the two films.* Both the original ''Film/KingKong1933'' and the [[Film/KingKong1976 1976 remake]] were followed by forgettable sequels (''Film/TheSonOfKong'' and ''Film/KingKongLives'', respectively, the latter of which finished off John Guillermin's directing career).* The original ''Film/ChildrenOfTheCorn1984'' film has suffered from an attack of Sequelitis, spawning seven gradually worsening sequels - ''[[Film/ChildrenOfTheCornIITheFinalSacrifice The Final Sacrifice]], [[Film/ChildrenOfTheCornIIIUrbanHarvest Urban Harvest]], [[Film/ChildrenOfTheCornIVTheGathering The Gathering]], [[Film/ChildrenOfTheCornVFieldsOfTerror Fields of Terror]], [[Film/ChildrenOfTheCorn666IsaacsReturn 666: Isaac's Return]], [[Film/ChildrenOfTheCornRevelation Revelation]]'' and ''[[Film/ChildrenOfTheCornGenesis Genesis]]''.* Both ''Film/TheAmityvilleHorror1979'' and ''Film/TheHowling'' had an unusually high number of sequels, most of them direct-to-video. With ''Franchise/{{Amityville}}'', it also extended to the book series, which eventually became pure fiction, and got progressively weirder and surreal.* ''Film/{{Hellraiser}}'' and ''Film/HellboundHellraiserII'' are usually seen as pretty good, while ''Film/HellraiserIIIHellOnEarth'' is often looked down upon for being more "[[ItsPopularNowItSucks mainstream]]" and {{slasher| movie}}y. [[Film/HellraiserBloodline The fourth]] tried returning to the series roots, but suffered severely from ExecutiveMeddling, resulting in an extreme case of WhatCouldHaveBeen. Mileage tends to vary on the direct-to-video films though ''Film/HellraiserHellworld'' seems to be the only near-universally disliked one (consensus saying it could've been a decent standalone film, but as a ''Franchise/{{Hellraiser}}'' film, it falls flat).* The first ''Film/LethalWeapon'' is generally considered the best, despite making far less at the box office than its sequels. ''Film/LethalWeapon2'' lacked some of the tension, but traded it in for a lot of gags making it funnier. ''Film/LethalWeapon3'' seemed to get a little more tired and ''Film/LethalWeapon4'' gives us fake-looking sharks, {{anvilicious}} (and hypocritical) political sentiments and a sympathy-pouch-wearing Rene Russo who's supposed to be 9-months pregnant yet able to fight martial arts-trained mooks.* ''Film/OhGod'' is generally remembered as a quirky little Carl Reiner comedy, while the next two movies are ignored almost to the point of being FanonDiscontinuity. The changes in creators definitely didn't help.* ''Film/CaddyshackII''. Chevy Chase was the only star returning for the sequel, which lost all of what made the first movie funny. They knew the writing was on the wall, as every other castmate and even returning writer Harold Ramis had no desire to even consider a sequel. * The first ''Film/{{Speed}}'' movie was a huge commercial and critical success. The sequel ''Film/Speed2CruiseControl'' was almost universally panned while barely avoiding being a box-office flop worldwide, and is one of the all-time classic examples of what Sequelitis is fully capable of. It began the career derailment of director Jan De Bont and became an OldShame to Sandra Bullock.* Shortly after Diane Thomas agreed to write a sequel to her first screenplay ''Film/RomancingTheStone'', she was killed in a car crash. The studio went ahead with the sequel and created ''Film/TheJewelOfTheNile'', a film so bad that one college screenwriting professor made an exam out of pointing out all the flaws in it.* ''Film/FinalDestination''. Of the films, the first two are viewed as the best, the third is viewed as average, the [[Film/FinalDestination4 fourth film]] is violently hated, and [[Film/FinalDestination5 the fifth]] is viewed as a proper return to form (with the highest critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes: 61%)* The ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' movies alternates between playing sequelitis straight and turning it on its head. Critical consensus has the first being nothing special, the [[Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen second downright bad]], the [[Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon third]] [[ContestedSequel having no]] [[BrokenBase real consensus]], and [[Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction the fourth]] somehow being both an improvement ''and'' the worst of the lot. The first movie was an okay sci-fi action-thriller that gave a semi-realistic tone to the franchise. The second movie lost that touch and became an over the top action movie with tons of [[RefugeInAudacity unneeded adult humor]] (such as the pot smoking mom, the [[UnfortunateImplications racist robots]] and mechanical testicles) and a generic plot. The third movie tried to please everyone and lowered the screen time for the robots (even though they are the title characters), made the first half almost a sort of parody (which led to the return of Sam's parents who by now are nothing more than TheArtifact) and the second half a sci-fi war movie that [[DroppedABridgeOnHim dropped bridges on many characters]]. Finally, the fourth movie acted as a soft reboot of the series by replacing the human cast and notably extending the length of the the action sequences; which in turn made the film the longest film of the series (2 hours and 45 minutes). While this move gave the title characters a notably increased amount of screentime, the final result was also considered by many reviewers to be a monotonous and phoned-in regurgitation of the previous three films.* ''Film/DeathWish'' started as a grounded, down-to-earth crime drama where Creator/CharlesBronson's character brought about a cynical analysis of the attitudes of Americans regarding the crime waves of the 1970s, and stood out as unique in the action genre at the time. Its four sequels however became progressively less grounded in reality and increasingly over the top, with Bronson resorting to excessive means in dispatching one typical action movie villain after another and dropping the social commentary that magnified the first film's impact. * ''Film/DungeonsAndDragonsWrathOfTheDragonGod'' is often said to have inverted this trope in spite of being released as a Film/{{SyFy Channel Original|Movie}}, which is normally a step worse than DirectToVideo. It helps that the first ''Film/DungeonsAndDragons'' was so campy and fargone from what D&D was (or was expected to be be) that the few fans left felt it had nowhere left to go but up. The third one, however, ''The Book of Vile Darkness'', managed to do worse again and strangely dropped all connections to the previous movies despite actually numbering itself this time.* The original ''Film/MenInBlack'' was well received by both critics and audiences, but ''Film/MenInBlackII'' (while still being a hit at the box office) was generally considered to be a dud; with the biggest symptoms of ''[=MiBII=]'''s problems being the OneSceneWonder talking pug being promoted to supporting character and Agent K being pulled right back out of retirement because the dynamic between him and J was just too good in the first. In addition, a lot of the first film's fresh and bizarre aliens, appear again in the sequel because they tested well. After a decade in DevelopmentHell, ''Film/MenInBlack3'' was released, and managed to not only be another big hit at the box office, but got very good reviews from the critics as well. * ''[[Film/{{Neighbors2014}} Neighbors]]'' was well-received was a huge box office success, grossing $270 million against a $18 million budget. Naturally, a sequel was ordered, leading to ''Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising'' two years later. Although that received a modest reception, which is a rarity for sequels to comedy films, critics complained that the film used the same clichés as the prior film and did nothing unique to them.* The original ''Film/PlanetOfTheApes1968'' had four sequels - most entering FranchiseZombie; Creator/CharltonHeston even asked that the second, ''Film/BeneathThePlanetOfTheApes'', to [[spoiler:end with Earth being destroyed]] [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun so it would be the last]], but didn't work - with varying levels of quality, mostly due to lowering budgets, culminating in the terrible ''Film/BattleForThePlanetOfTheApes''. It only continued afterwards in TV series and reimaginings. The third movie, ''Film/EscapeFromThePlanetOfTheApes'', considered the best of the sequels, was the only one deliberately written open-ended with a sequel in mind. The fourth movie, ''Film/ConquestOfThePlanetOfTheApes'', would have been the last (APJ was already considering a TV series), but profits were good enough to justify a fifth movie.* ''Film/AirBud''. It went from a, touching story about a dog escaping an abusive owner, helping a young boy find his place, and leading a small-town sports team to victory, to a wacky comedy about ''[[SuddenlyVoiced talking puppies]]''. Most fans were not amused.* ''Film/TheMummyTombOfTheDragonEmperor'' is widely considered to be inferior to the first ''Film/{{The Mummy|1999}}'' (a very fun ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' style romp) and ''Film/TheMummyReturns'' (the first film on steroids) films. Probably not helped by the seven year gap between the second and third films - it badly misses Creator/RachelWeisz, who was replaced by Maria Bello (Weisz's and Fraser's chemistry in the first two films is obvious whereas Fraser and Bello are totally unconvincing as a couple). The omission of Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) and Ardeth Bay (Oded Fehr) robs the film of those actors' abilities to stretch beyond the schlock setting and craft believable and human characters. Creator/JetLi is criminally underused in the Dragon Emperor role, spending most of his screen time as a CGI dragon. Creator/MichelleYeoh is wasted in her role also and the sequence with the yetis stretches willing suspension of disbelief too far. Critically panned with poor fan reactions, it made LESS money than either of the first two despite seven years worth of inflation, and has probably [[FranchiseKiller killed the main franchise]] (though the ''Film/TheScorpionKing'' spinoff series continues).* ''The Trial of Billy Jack'': The first two movies in the series, ''The Born Losers'' and ''Billy Jack'' are both well-recieved. ''Trial of Billy Jack'', on the other hand, is considered up there with ''Film/HighlanderIITheQuickening'' and ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' as one of the worst sequels ever made.* The 2009 comedy ''Film/TheHangover'' quickly became regarded as a well-done, raunchy comedy, making $467 million of a $35 million budget. A sequel was made only two years later. Unfortunately, [[RecycledScript it played out as a carbon copy of the first film]], only far more [[DarkerAndEdgier dark and raunchy]] without any of the surprise. While it managed to make even more money than the first, many people didn't like it for the above reasons. A third film came out another two years later, doing worse critically than even the second, despite trying not to rehash the same concept.* ''Film/KickAss2'' was generally not as well received as [[Film/KickAss the original]]--[[CriticalDissonance by critics, at least. Fans and the general audience seem to be reacting more favorably to it]].* ''Film/{{Beethoven}}'' was a modest hit when it came out, but wasn't anything particularly special. However, the success of the film was enough to give Hollywood an excuse to turn it into a franchise, resulting in a film series that became more and more out of touch with the original with every installment. While ''Beethoven's 2nd'' stayed true to the original formula with its then-familiar cast and Beethoven still at his usual canine antics, ''Beethoven's 3rd'' saw Beethoven transferred to a new family headed by father Judge Reinhold replacing Charles Grodin, with increasingly uninspired villains and stories appearing in each installment. By the time of Beethoven's ''sixth'' film appearance, the series was rebooted and retooled and then the ''seventh'' installment, ''Beethoven's Christmas Adventure'', had Beethoven ''talking'', finally doing away with what little resemblance the sequels still bore to the original. There was also a short-lived ''animated series''. In 2014, it spawned an ''eighth'' installment, ''Beethoven's Treasure Tail''.* ''Film/SpyKids'' proved to be a very successful family film and thus spawned its own franchise; unfortunately, each new installment has done worse than the one that came before. While ''Spy Kids 2'' proved to be a decent movie despite this, ''Spy Kids 3D: Game Over'' quickly came to be considered the series' jump the shark moment, having little to do with the franchise other than the characters; however, this did not stop Robert Rodriquez from producing (reluctantly) ''Spy Kids: All the Time in the World'' in 2011, ''eight years'' after the conclusion of the original trilogy, with rumors of a fifth film on the way despite the fourth film's poor critical and box office reception. * The ''Film/HaroldAndKumarGoToWhiteCastle'' sequels are seen this way by some. The first is well loved, though technically its box office performance was the smallest of the three, but ''Film/HaroldAndKumarEscapeFromGuantanamoBay'' gets a lot of criticism for being too political even though it has the highest box office performance of the trilogy. However, the third film, ''Film/AVeryHaroldAndKumar3DChristmas'' has gotten better reviews than the previous movie mostly because it avoids the politics that plagued it.* ''Film/MuppetsMostWanted'' starts with [[http://youtu.be/DAl08h_KW8A a song about sequels]] that hangs a lampshade on this trope. ''"And everybody knows that the sequel's never quite as good."''* ''Film/TwentyTwoJumpStreet'' parodies this in the CreditsGag with increasingly wacky sequel ideas. The concept of the film being a retread of the first one is one that's explored.* ''Film/BabyGeniuses'' of all things also falls under this trope; in spite of the original film's critical thrashing, its modest box office success led to a sequel entitled ''Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2'', viewers are still divided over which one is worse. Plans for a third movie seemed to fall through after its original director Bob Clark died in 2007, only for a new director to take the helm and resume the series with the third released as direct-to-video, and practically ''no-one'' admits that it better than the first two. * If there's one thing worse than a highly anticipated movie stuck in DevelopmentHell, it's when the producers, directors and stars try to rush to get it out of said hell and completed, which is why the sequel to ''Film/BasicInstinct'' was condemned by critics and [[FranchiseKiller ruined any chance of a third movie.]] The box office gross didn't even cover Sharon Stone's salary for the movie.* ''Film/TheConjuring'' fared well with critics, then its prequel ''Annabelle'' released the following year was reviled by some and considered SoOkayItsAverage by others. The film then had a proper sequel in 2016, which met critical success.* ''Film/HotTubTimeMachine'' was well-received, while ''Film/HotTubTimeMachine2'' was ravaged by critics and only slightly better-received by audiences.* ''Film/TheExpendables3'', due to being rated PG-13 and adding unnecessary new characters played by lesser-known actors who are taking the screentime from the bigger name actors whose appearance were the whole point of the franchise, has drawn much criticism. It doesn't help that many of these new characters are played by [[NonActorVehicle real-life MMA fighters and martial artists with little to no acting experience]], which unfortunately comes across in their performances.* The ''Film/MissingInAction'' series get progressively worse with each installment.* ''Film/TheBluesBrothers'' is one of the most famous movies inspired by ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', but ''Film/BluesBrothers2000'' was basically [[RecycledScript just the same thing all over again]] -- so much that the only major difference is that John Goodman replaced Creator/JohnBelushi -- and it gained little fanfare from critics and audiences. As a result it [[CreatorKiller led to the downfall of]] Creator/JohnLandis, who directed the original eighteen years earlier.* ''The Mouse on the Moon'' was completely devoid of Creator/PeterSellers and brought back very few people from ''Film/TheMouseThatRoared'', one of whom, producer Walter Shenson, made two more [[Film/AHardDaysNight (better]] [[Film/{{Help}} recognized)]] movies with director Richard Lester. Unsurprisingly, the other three "Mouse" novels by Leonard Wibberly never made it to the silver screen.* Of the four(''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine'' was well done but didn't involve the actual Beatles until the end) films featuring Music/TheBeatles, only ''Film/AHardDaysNight'' and ''Film/{{Help}}'' have really good storylines while the other three, each claiming to complete the group's three-film contract, do not. ''Film/MagicalMysteryTour'' is too bizarre for its own good, and ''Film/LetItBe'' appears to be too downbeat for enjoyment.* ''Film/InTheHeatOfTheNight'' had two sequels, 1970's ''They Call Me Mr. Tibbs'' and 1971's ''The Organization'', that most people tend to forget about. It doesn't help that the only people who worked on all three films -- other than Sidney Poitier, who played Tibbs in both sequels -- were Quincy Jones, who provided the jazzy score for each, and producer Walter Mirisch.* Though ''Film/WaynesWorld2'' made back its $40m budget in theaters, it didn't do nearly as well as the original ''Film/WaynesWorld'', largely due to [[Film/SchindlersList its]] [[Film/MrsDoubtfire competition]].* ''Film/{{The Maze Runner|2014}}'' was well-received for being considerably smarter than a lot of the other [[YoungAdultLiterature YA]] adaptations. ''Film/MazeRunnerTheScorchTrials'' was viewed as a huge step down, with no emphasis on character development and for it being an InNameOnly adaptation of ''Literature/TheScorchTrials''. * ''Film/RamboIII'' is considered to be the weakest of the ''Rambo'' sequels.* Though ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'' managed to be a box office smash like [[Film/SherlockHolmes its predecessor]], critics and audiences found it weaker and more uneven.* General opinion seems to be that, while not bad or horrible, ''Film/IndependenceDayResurgence'' isn't quite as good or fun as [[Film/IndependenceDay the original film]]. * The original ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' spawned three worsening sequels, none of which involved Creator/AlfredHitchcock due to AuthorExistenceFailure.* Film/AChristmasStory is regarded as a holiday classic. The sequels were too obscure... except for ''A Christmas Story 2'', which seen as one of the worst movies of all time.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]* Creator/LFrankBaum made thirteen ''Literature/LandOfOz'' novels. Most people have only heard of [[Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz the first book]], [[AdaptationDisplacement and that's only because it was]] [[Film/TheWizardOfOz made into a movie]], but it's by far the best received one. The other ''Oz'' novels are generally thought of as mediocre to outright bad, with the series becoming StrictlyFormula as time went on.* Creator/PiersAnthony's series of ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' novels has reached over 30 novels and currently consists [[RunningTheAsylum almost entirely of puns and plot developments suggested by readers]].* Most sequels to works in the public domain are awful, or at least so inferior to the originals that fans will invariably be disappointed. One reason for this is that only the very best books survive the test of time: perhaps a sequel to Elizabeth Gaskell's ''North and South'' would be comparable to the original, but any sequel to ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'' would pale in comparison. Another is that anyone, no matter how dreadful a writer they may be, can publish a sequel to a public domain work. That's not possible for a work under copyright, where the copyright holder can prevent the publication of any unauthorized sequel.** Susan Kay's ''Phantom''*** It is generally considered to be pretty good by the phandom, and is even accepted as (admittedly dubious) canon by some. The sequel to the ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' musical may not be so lucky (see Theater below).*** Even Kay suffers from her share of criticism. While it's generally agreed that the first two-thirds of her book (actually a prologue to the original story describing Erik's backstory) are well done, a lot of fans strongly dislike the way she portrays the Erik/Christine relationship and its aftermath in the final third.** Stephen Baxter's ''The Time Ships'', a sequel to ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'' is considered quite good. Largely because it averts the 'anyone can do it' part; Baxter is a fairly major SF writer, and was authorised by the Wells estate.* ''River God'', by Creator/WilburSmith, was quite interesting and different to mainstream fiction. The sequel ''Warlock'' went from the engaging and amusing first-person narrative style to third-person, which allowed for us to see scenes from several characters' perspectives, but mostly allowed for gratuitous shoehorning- in of sex scenes to pad out the already inflated-but-largely-empty plot. ''The Quest'' has almost completely dispensed with any ties to the Ancient Egypt pantheon, instead substituting some vaguely New-Agey mumbo-jumbo universally-recognised quasi-religious belief system.* James P. Hogan's ''Giants'' series. It's not as if the sequels are bad - it's just that they tend to detract from the previous books. The first book, ''Inherit the Stars'', is the story of a bunch of scientists trying to wrap their brains around a massive enigma. The second one, ''The Gentle Giants of Ganymede'', brings in aliens, but is fairly similar. The third one, ''Giants' Star'', alters the style by bringing in conflict. ** The third also adds the idea that [[spoiler:the reason people are evil is because evil time-travellers have made them that way]]. The fourth expands this to [[spoiler:the evil time-travellers were actually taken over by aliens who lived inside a computer.]]** And the books {{Ret Con}}s things established in the previous ones to an annoying degree.* The sequel novels in ''Literature/TheBourneSeries''.** They contain, in the first addition, [[spoiler:[[DroppedABridgeOnHim Dropped A Bridge On]] two of the most important characters in the first twenty pages, a character who is canonically supposed to be dead suffering from ParentalAbandonment, ComicBookTime, and much, much, much, much CanonDefilement]]. The second addition is no less {{egregious}}, including [[spoiler:[[DroppedABridgeOnHim Dropping A Bridge On Marie In Between Books]], having Bourne abandon all common sense, ridiculously atrocious pseudoscience, almost downright offensive portrayals of Washington, DC, and Bourne suddenly becoming an expert on everything, including knowing every language from Arabic to an obscure Ethiopian dialect, when in canon he's just supposed to be a professor of Oriental Studies. Seriously. Also, he carries around a Playstation 3 for no other reason than [[RuleOfCool it looks cool]].]]** ''The Bourne Deception'' is plain humiliation. Bourne visits a Balinese shaman, sleeps with a woman who was formerly his friend's girlfriend, and mentions virtually nothing about his children. In The Bourne Ultimatum he is 50, and that is when Soviet Union still existed; the book mentions the timeline had passed 2005 since Indonesian Bali Bombing. The new author transforms this tortured amnesiac soul into [[ComicBookTime ageless James Bond-wannabe]].* Laurell K. Hamilton's ''Literature/AnitaBlake'' series started as a quite cool detective series, but degraded from book five onward.* Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin completed the original ''Literature/{{Earthsea}}'' trilogy in 1974. Sixteen years later, she wrote a fourth book, ''[[{{Literature/Tehanu}} Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea]]'', which suffers from MoodWhiplash, WriterOnBoard and a lack of plot. And it wasn't even the last book.* The feminist science fiction writer Suzette Elgin conceived Native Tongue with a lot innovative ways to fuse feminism, SF, and linguistics. In the novel, the women use a language she invented to express difference experiences more suited for woman. The novel is excellent, the two sequels on the other hand are chaotic jumbles that create more loose ends than they tie up.* ''Literature/GoneWithTheWind''** 55 years after its publication, ''Scarlett'', an "authorized" sequel, appeared. Critics were not impressed.** Another sequel, ''Rhett Butler's People'', also appeared. The critics panned that one too.* Terry Goodkind's ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' series started putting more and more focus on [[MagiBabble magical history]], [[AuthorTract Objectivist philosophy]] and the main character's role as a leader after the second book. The common opinion on this site is that it JumpedTheShark, with each book getting worse and worse. Goodkind gave the last three books a rather good attempt to emulate the first two's plot and style, at least.* Robert Asprin's ''Literature/PhulesCompany'' series; the first 2 books are decent, the books co-written after that take a marked turn downwards. But this is partly the fault of RealLifeWritesThePlot and AuthorExistenceFailure. His ''Literature/MythAdventures'' series, while maintaining a high standard for quite a while, has also begun to sag for the same reason.* The ''Rocheworld'' series by Robert Forward likewise has a great first book, a moderately good second, and utter crap dragging along behind.* The ''Literature/{{Ringworld}}'' series by Creator/LarryNiven.** It has succumbed to this as Niven has caught RetCon Fever and begun tearing down the conventions of his own universe.** ''Ringworld's Children'' retcons... practically ''everything established about the Known Space universe''. (OK, that's a slight exaggeration, but still.)* Most(?) people have the latter half of Creator/StephenKing's ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' series falling into this trope. It became especially evident when he had elements of ''DT'' leak into his non-''DT'' novels (especially ''Literature/HeartsInAtlantis'' and ''Literature/{{Insomnia}}''). Even if you do like the later installments for their writing or whatever, it definitely shows by the end that King didn't actually know where he was going with the story to begin with and had to just come up with something without the benefit of having planned in advance.* Andrzej Sapkowski named it as one of major SF&F plagues in his ''No Gold in the Grey Mountains'' article... and didn't forgot to add a HypocrisyNod.--> I myself, while considering myself an attentive inspector of the news of fantastics, sometimes don't buy the freshly released sixth book of [[TheEpic a saga]] because my attention somehow failed to register previous five. But much, much more frequently I decline to buy tome one if its cover grins with a warning: 'First Book Of the Magic Shit Cycle'.* Creator/OrsonScottCard with his ''Ender'' and ''Shadow'' saga (the first of each series being parallel, and the rest a split following different characters). While the sequel to ''Literature/EndersGame'', ''Literature/SpeakerForTheDead'', is widely considered to be just as good if not even better than the first, the final two in that saga, ''Literature/{{Xenocide}}'' and ''Literature/ChildrenOfTheMind'' are overly pretentious and bloated philosophical works that could have easily been cut into one shorter volume. They also leave on a horrible cliffhanger that rivals that of ''Literature/ChapterhouseDune'' which Card has had 13 years to end, but instead written a midquel between the first and second books as well as a short story collection. The ''Literature/EndersShadow'' series fares even worse, with the first book being equal to or better than the parallel ''Ender's Game'' but taking a steep decline starting with the second. While not as bloated in narrative as the Ender saga's latter books, the Shadow series instead destroys most of the mystery behind Peter's unification of Earth by making him into nothing but an annoying schoolchild, and doing absolutely nothing. A 4th sequel is planned, thus putting the series at 11 books. The irony of it all? Some copies of ''Speaker for the Dead'' are prefaced with an introduction that talks about how reluctant the author was to revisit Ender just for a ''second'' book.* Creator/RogerZelazny's ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfAmber'' series: Don't talk to fans about the sequel series focusing on Merlin. And don't even dare mention the John Betancourt knockoffs, officially sanctioned or not.* ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'', partially because the plot that worked for the first five or six books gets a bit stale when it's [[RecycledPremise pulled out for the twentieth time]]. It does not help that the {{Wacky Wayside Tribe}}s started to replace "plot relevance" with "annoying habits" around the time of "The Pearls of Lutra".* The sequels to Creator/ArthurCClarke's ''Literature/RendezvousWithRama'' (which are actually written primarily by Gentry Lee) suffer from this.* Creator/GregoryBenford once wrote a sequel to Creator/ArthurCClarke's amazing ''Against the Fall of Night'', called ''Beyond the Fall of Night''. It's awful, primarily because ''Against'' [[spoiler:sets up a massive battle between good and evil with a disembodied intelligence called Vanamonde battling the evil Mad Mind]]. ''Benford'' completely ignores that and makes Beyond be about a very strange track of evolution and [[spoiler:Vanamonde barely appears right at the end, and is almost completely superfluous, having the Mad Mind being defeated by a specific branch of humanity]]. ''Against the Fall of Night'' is loved by science fiction fans, but ''Beyond the Fall of Night'' tends to be hated.* The ''Series/DoctorWho Literature/PastDoctorAdventures'' novel ''The Quantum Archangel''. A sequel to "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E5TheTimeMonster The Time Monster]]", which the author claimed was intentionally "the ultimate in {{fanwank}}", it's basically "The Time Monster" ONLY BIGGER! So the TOMTIT machine that affects space-time is replaced by a more advanced version called the TITAN Array that affects Calabi-Yau space (the "extra" dimensions in superstring theory). TOMTIT was secretly created by the Master to trap a Chronovore; TITAN is comandeered by the Master to wipe the Chronovores out and [[AGodAmI give himself their powers]]. The Third Doctor disrupts TOMTIT with an arrangement of forks and winebottles; the Sixth Doctor builds a ''much bigger'' version to disrupt TITAN. The Third Doctor and the Delgado Master go on a jaunt to Ancient Atlantis; the Sixth Doctor and the Ainley Master visit a forgotten planet from the beginning of the universe. Stuart Hyde gets temporarily youthed instead of aged, the Doctor attempts to Time Ram the Master's TARDIS, and Kronos again {{Deus Ex Machina}}s everything at the end. Even the throwaway gag that "E = MC cubed" in the Vortex gets reused and amped up; in Calabi-Yau Space, apparently, E = MC to the fourth power. It's so blatant about it that some feel it goes beyond conventional sequelitis and becomes good, or at least successfully does what it wants to do.* Creator/RobertEHoward's most famous creation [[Franchise/ConantheBarbarian Conan The Cimmerian]] suffers horribly from this. Not only are there endless continuations, prequels and other adventurers of vastly varying quality by many different authors but the original stories were rewritten in places to make them sync up with the sequels. However even the original stories occasionally suffer from sequelitis. Because of the character's popularity, Howard knew he could sell any Conan story to ''Magazine/WeirdTales'' and wrote some very cliched tales (such as ''The Devil in Iron'') which were effectively knock-offs of his own earlier efforts when he needed quick cash.* A subversion comes with Creator/JRRTolkien's abandoned sequel to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. Called ''The New Shadow'', he got as far as coming up with some characters and setting it in the fourth age of Middle-earth where a dark cult rose up in the lands of Gondor. However, he abandoned it after only a few pages as he felt it would not be as epic or up to the standards of his other work, then suffered AuthorExistenceFailure, meaning it's highly unlikely this will be finished. However, there is a fan made mod known as ''VideoGame/TheFourthAgeTotalWar'' which makes this concept and [[ShownTheirWork expands on it]].* ''Literature/WarriorCats''. The 1st arc of novels is treasured by fans. The second arc is usually seen as good, but not as good as the original. The third and fourth arcs are very... [[LoveItOrHateIt polarizing]], and the [[{{Prequel}} fifth]] is typically liked a little better than those due to being fresher with the new time period and characters, but still there's a general opinion that the series is dragging on too long. Since the series is so financially successful, and has a vast and dedicated fanbase, the books just keep on coming. Most complaints about the later series cite the reused plot devices, the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters ridiculous amount of mostly flat and undeveloped supporting characters]], and the smaller focus on nature and survival in favor of more anthropomorphized themes like love and family issues. It's often compared to a soap opera. And this doesn't even touch on the vast amount of mangas, field guides and other companion books, which generally entertain diehard fans but hold little literary merit. It's hard to say when the franchise will actually end, because the fans are always eager for new books and the authors, who keep in touch with their fanbase regularly via author chat, don't want to disappoint them.* Creator/AnneMcCaffrey's ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern'' series has this. The first book was stunning and awesome, and the second and third that followed were, while having their problems, quite good. Unfortunately, she kept writing, and things went to hell in a handbasket. She contradicted established canon from one book to the next, couldn't keep names, ages, and places straight, and the plots devolved into pathetic monstrosities.* Creator/GeorgeMacdonaldFraser's ''{{Literature/Flashman}}'' series dances around this. There's no fan consensus on what's the best book, though certain sequels (namely ''Royal Flash'' and ''Flashman at the Charge'') are generally ranked higher than the original. While the first seven books are considered pretty solid, the last five are somewhat polarizing. Criticisms include BadassDecay, making Flashman less MagnificentBastard and more conventional AntiHero, Fraser [[AuthorTract injecting political views into the books]] and increasingly formula storytelling (Flashman gets dragged into danger, meets some historical figures, shags pretty ladies, gets betrayed by everyone yet improbably survives as a hero). ''Flashman on the March'', the very last book, feels like [[AuthorsSavingThrow a deliberate attempt to assuage these criticisms]] -- notably evinced by the scene where Flashman kicks his Ethiopian lover down a waterfall.* Creator/AnneRice's ''Literature/TheVampireChronicles'' are almost universally agreed to suffer from this, with the fourth book, Tale of the Body Thief, or the fifth, Memnoch the Devil, usually cited as the [[JumpingTheShark shark-jumping point]]. Not-so-coincidentally, this is around when Rice decided she had ProtectionFromEditors. It doesn't take a particularly careful [[MemeticMutation interrogation of the text]] to see that the characterizations are stronger in the first few books, and that's not even getting into the forgotten plot points and frequent passing-about of the IdiotBall. Upon meeting another ''Vampire Chronicles'' fan, it's probably best to ask "[[FanonDiscontinuity what's your canon?]]" early on, so you can get into discussing the books you both think are good.* In Literature/TheBible, there's the famous story of David and Goliath that everyone's heard of. Another story from the Bible is the one where a guy named Elhanan manages to kill Goliath's brother, Lahmi. That one isn't nearly as popular as the one about Goliath. Had ''you'' ever heard of it before you read this?* ''{{Literature/Dinoverse}}'' suffers this to an extent, though it's only six books long. The first book, which was split into two, was more thoughtful and less {{Anvilicious}} than they became. Characters became better people, but it was due to their experiences rather than appearing to be the intention of the M.I.N.D. Machine. Rules and powers set down as rigid later were more flexible then, animals were less anthropomorphized, and there was more depth of character interaction. The last book abandons the idea of traveling through time by astral projecting and possessing other creatures to go with a more standard portal mechanic, and female characters stop being proactive for no reason.* While Creator/VCAndrews' ''[[Literature/FlowersInTheAttic Dollanganger Saga]]'' aren't exactly critical darlings, they are generally beloved by Andrews' fans, even if the prequel ''{{Literature/Garden Of Shadows}}'' was [[AuthorExistenceFailure completed by her ghostwriter]]. Almost 30 years after Andrews' death, the ghostwriter began the ''Christopher's Diary'' series, billed to bring a new prospective on the series (Via Chris). The series has so far been met with disappointment and even loathing from fans for not actually bringing anything new to the table, and for [[spoiler: retconing Cory's death]], the latter which some readers have called "Disrespectful" to Andrews' legacy.* Under the name of "Collodi Nipote," Paolo Lorenzini, the nephew of ''Pinocchio'' author Carlo Collodi, wrote six more stories about the little wooden puppet between 1917 and 1954. The SequelReset of keeping Pinocchio as a puppet didn't help.* While ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'' never was a critical favorite, the book ''Grey''--a retelling of the first book from Christian's point of view--has been poorly received even by readers and critics who liked the original trilogy. The two main complaints are as follows:** Too much of the text is copied and pasted from the original book.** Christian's thoughts are banal, and also way too stalker-like. While Christian certainly acted like a stalker sometimes, it's unpleasant to see that he actually feels and thinks like a stalker.* Even though ''Through the Looking-Glass'' is a well respected novel, its DarkerAndEdgier tone makes it less popular than ''Literature/AliceInWonderland''.* ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfTomSawyer'' was, famously, followed by the EvenBetterSequel ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn''. However, some years later when Creator/MarkTwain fell into some financial difficulties and needed [[MoneyDearBoy some good-selling books to pay the bills]], he wrote two additional sequels, ''Tom Sawyer Abroad'' and ''Tom Sawyer, Detective.'' There's a reason you've probably never heard of them. Suffice to say, the characters are {{Flanderized}} nearly beyond all recognition and the plots are merely flimsy excuses for satire of popular genres of the day.* In-universe in ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'' with the fictional ''Slumber Party Pals'' series. Greg thinks the first 30 books were good, but that the quality went downhill when the author ran out of ideas. Volume #87 is titled ''Lindsey Loses a Mitten''.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]* Even more than the film examples, ''Franchise/StarTrek'' suffered this in its series. ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries The Original Series]]'' was considered an uneven novelty, a series that was either teeth grating crap, or the very pinnacle of science-fiction, depending on the given episode. ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]'' has been formally recognized as being among the top 100 shows ever made and a crowning achievement of television. Paramount came down with Sequelitis, commissioning '''three''' follow-up series (one of them was a ''pre''quel). The critical reception deteriorated with each successive series, along with the ratings (though a few preferred ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' in later years). The last one made it to four seasons, the fourth season was only made so that the series could be syndicated, and not end up a total failure.* ''Series/DeadRingers'' had a sketch in which different versions of Arnold Schwarzenegger came back from the future to warn him not to sign up for any more lousy ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' sequels, [[spoiler:eventually reaching ''[[RidiculousFutureSequelisation Terminator 23]]'' before Sarah Connor shot the present Arnie to save the future. To her dismay, another Arnie came back and revealed she is now his co-star in ''Kindergarten Cop 14''!]] [[BigNo Nnnooooo!]]* The spinoff/sequel to ''Series/That70sShow'', ''Series/That80sShow'', alienated old viewers and didn't get any new ones. * ''The New Monkees'' had the misfortune of competing with reruns of [[Series/TheMonkees the series that inspired it]]. As a result the series was pulled after only thirteen episodes.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]* Critics wanted ESPosthumus's albums to have [[SequelEscalation more powerful and action-filled]] songs; this caused the pieces in ''Makara'' to have [[ItsTheSameSoItSucks less variation]] compared to the flow and richer tunes in previous albums ''Unearthed'' and ''Cartographer''.* No genre features more numbered albums than hip-hop. It usually works like this:** 1. Rapper releases album that's deemed a classic or has massive success.** 2. Rapper's followup albums don't perform as well.** 3. Rapper returns to "the series" to get "the magic" (and brand recognition) back.* The above rarely ever leads to any sort of comeback, so it's easier just to list aversions:** Music/LilWayne's ''Tha Carter II'' is universally considered to be an improvement over ''Tha Carter''; some fans still consider ''II'' to be his best album, in fact. While ''Tha Carter III'' massively outsold ''II'', [[BrokenBase debate still rages on the better album.]] However, a consensus ''has'' emerged on ''Tha Carter IV'' - namely, that it's a steaming hunk of shit compared to the previous two ''Carters''. As two albums came between ''III'' and ''IV'' (including the rock album), ''IV'' ended up playing the rule straight.** Music/{{Eminem}} avoided this reaction with ''The Marshall Mathers LP'' and ''The Eminem Show''. While ''The Slim Shady LP'' is widely viewed as a hip-hop classic, the two follow-up albums, especially ''The Marshall Mathers LP'', contained a great deal of the social commentary, controversy, and more substantive songs like "Stan" that helped cement Eminem's legendary status. Played straight, however, with ''The Marshall Mathers LP 2'' - while it's a monstrous hit, reception is a lot more all over the place. ** Music/KanyeWest also averted this with ''Late Registration'', the second installment in the "college bear" series of albums, which is widely regarded as a worthy follow-up to ''College Dropout''. ''Graduation'' is a bit more controversial - while it achieved massive commercial and critical success, it began Kanye's trend towards [[NewSoundAlbum different sounds on each album]]. It should be noted that Kanye has actively averted this trope following ''Graduation'' - his subsequent solo albums (''808s and Heartbreaks'', ''My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'', and ''Yeezus'') are stylistically and sonically very different.** [[Music/JayZ Jay-Z]]: ''The Blueprint'' is widely considered a classic album, among Jay-Z's best, contributed the term "renegaded" to hip-hop lexicon(referring to Eminem's [[OneSongWonder guest appearance]] on "Renegade"), and helped jump-start Music/KanyeWest's career. ''Blueprint 2'' was considered to suffer from too many filler songs, and while ''Blueprint 3'' was a major hit, but had a less positive critical reception. * Many people consider Music/{{Queensryche}}'s ''Operation: Mindcrime'' to be one of the best metal albums ever. Eighteen years later, after a number of less-well received albums, they made a sequel, ''Operation: Mindcrime 2'', which most critics and fans saw as mediocre at best.* There's a joke about the group Music/{{Chicago}} (a band that named most of their albums numerically). The joke is that their first album is rated 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, and that as the number in the name of each album goes up, the number of its rating goes down.* Referenced in-work by "You Part 2" by Olivia Lane, which compares an ex who is coming back for more to a bad sequel:-->You know I never liked going to a sequel\\Somehow the second one never is equal to the first one[[/folder]]

[[folder:Stand-Up Comedy]]* {{Parodied|Trope}} by EddieIzzard when discussing the Pope:-->They're not very good at naming Popes. They had a run of Piuses, it was like Hollywood: '''Pope Pius I'''; '''Pope Pius II'''; '''Pope Pius III''' - ''[[RevengeOfTheSequel The Revenge Of The Pius People]]''; '''Pope Pius IV''' - ''[[ItsPersonal This Time He's Pissed Off!]]''; '''Pope Pius V''' - ''In 3D!''[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]* The musical ''Theatre/OfTheeISing'', a cheerful satire on the American political system, opened on Broadway late in 1931 to immense popular and critical acclaim, which not only made it one of the longest-running shows of the decade but won a Pulitzer Prize for its writers; it was the first ever musical play to win the award. Almost two years later, a sequel, ''Let 'Em Eat Cake'', appeared from the same authors, with the same principal actors and the same producer. It was not a commercial success; many of its jokes were recycled from the earlier show, and a bewildering series of plot complications (involving, among other things, a baseball-playing League of Nations) stretched WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief too far.* ''Bring Back Birdie'' was a sequel to ''Theatre/ByeByeBirdie'', produced and set twenty years later. It was written by the same authors as the original show, and featured the same characters, with Chita Rivera once again starring as Rose Alvarez. Most people who saw the show during the less than a week it ran on Broadway agreed that it was horrible. Somewhat infamous for a moment where the actor playing Birdie lost the beat to one of the songs then [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere marched off stage]], saying, "You sing it! I never liked this song anyway!"* The musical ''Theatre/{{Annie}}'' similarly had a sequel written by the same authors (including composer Charles Strouse, who had also done ''Bye Bye Birdie'' and ''Bring Back Birdie'', though lyricist Martin Charnin seems to have been the ringleader in this scheme), with several of the older members of the original cast reprising their roles. In the implausible plot of ''Annie 2: Miss Hannigan's Revenge'', Daddy Warbucks was ordered to find a mother for Annie, which provided the opportunity for Miss Hannigan's scheme (conceived with a good deal of MotiveDecay) to first become Warbucks's wife and then a widow without any dependents. When the eagerly awaited show had its pre-Broadway opening in Washington, D.C. in January 1990, audiences were stunned at how unfunny the show was. Massive rewrites ensued, and continued in earnest even after the show's Broadway booking was canceled and several star actors dropped out, including Dorothy Loudon as Miss Hannigan. Miss Hannigan was ultimately written out in favor of a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute (though the plot remained mostly the same), and the authors' desperate efforts to get their show into New York finally resulted in its opening off-Broadway in 1993, as ''Annie Warbucks''. Critics recognized the show as an unnecessary sequel, and it failed to catch on with audiences.* The musical ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_Friend The Boy Friend]]'' also suffers from this despite being not as well known as some others out there. Its sequel is so ridiculous that it has to be seen (or read) to believe. The name? [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divorce_Me,_Darling! ''Divorce Me, Darling!'']]* ''Theatre/LoveNeverDies'', the sequel to ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', is being slammed by many fans of the original.** The Australian run of Love Never Dies was extensively reworked by Andrew Loyd Webber, with the greatest improvements being made to the characterization (of nearly all the characters) and the plot. Needless to say, the current run is leagues better than when it first started showing. If it lives up to the original however is still very much YMMV.* Though the one-act opera ''Trouble in Tahiti'' has never ranked among LeonardBernstein's best-known works, its reputation is considerably better than ''A Quiet Place'', the three-act sequel Bernstein decided to write three decades later. The libretto reads like a bad soap opera, and the music is generally dull except for the parts of the second act which incorporate ''Trouble in Tahiti'' in its entirety as a flashback.* While ''Theatre/TheBarberOfSeville'' and ''Theatre/TheMarriageOfFigaro'' are well known, though mainly due to AdaptationDisplacement as operas written respectively by Music/GioachinoRossini and Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart, ''La mère coupable ou l'autre Tartuffe'', Beaumarchais' third entry in the "Figaro trilogy," is not so much so. Most people who have seen both operas are upset of the absence of two popular characters, Bartholo (Bartolo) and Bazile (Basilio).* Thirteen years after the premiere of ''Louise'', Gustave Charpentier gave Paris the opera ''Julien'', the story of which focused on Louise's boyfriend. It didn't do so well.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theme Parks]]* Many rides in Disney Theme Parks fall prey to this. Perhaps the most puissant example of this trope in a Disney ride is the "Imagination" rides featured at the EPCOT theme park in Disney World. The original ride, Journey Into Imagination, was a much beloved and very creative ride centering around the world of a child's imagination and starred the Dreamfinder, a red-bearded eccentric who collected dreams and creative thoughts, and his pet purple dragon Figment with a {{Clock|Punk}} or SteamPunk style. ExecutiveMeddling involving a potential change in sponsors caused the ride to close in 1998 for a complete overhaul. It was reopened in 1999 as "Journey Into Your Imagination", a completely redone ride featuring none of the charm possessed by the original and with both Figment and the Dreamfinder MIA. The new ride set a record for the most complaints received over a new attraction at a Disney Park. The revamp was received so badly, it was closed a mere 2 years later in 2001. In 2002 the ride received a later update, "Journey Into Imagination With Figment". Though it is a notable improvement over the second version of the ride, most long time Disney parkgoers tend to agree that the ride's first incarnation was by far its best.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]* The ''VideoGame/{{Soul|Series}}'' series got hit with this pretty hard in TheNewTens. ''Soul Edge'' was a respectable 3D fighter, though it wound up being overshadowed by [[VideoGame/{{Tekken}} its sister series]] and then [[SequelDisplacement displaced by its sequel]] ''Soulcalibur'', which became a major KillerApp for the UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast. ''Soulcalibur II'' [[EvenBetterSequel continued to improve upon its predecessor's refinements]] and is considered one of the best fighting games of all time. The third and fourth ''Calibur'' games aren't bad, but couldn't match the standards set by ''II''. Then came ''Soulcalibur V'', which was full of FakeBalance and a number of changes to the story that were met with a lot of derision from the fanbase. Major League Gaming, the crowd that ''V'' was meant to appeal to, rejected it outright. Then, the series shifted focus with ''Soulcalibur: Unbreakable Soul'' and ''Soulcalibur: Lost Swords'', which got even more backlash from the inclusion of {{microtransactions}} and online DRM, respectively. [[note]]The always-online DRM was seen as a particular sticking point since it was a single-player only game.[[/note]] Couple that with all three of those titles coming out in a twelve-month period, and the subsequent fall from grace has left the fate of the series up in the air.* Opinion differs on whether ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'' or ''Master of Orion II'' is the better game, but almost no-one thinks ''Master of Orion III'' is anything but unmitigated crap.* ''VideoGame/XCOMUFODefense'' (or ''UFO: Enemy Unknown'', depending on where you live) was a surprise hit, with its great atmosphere, fine management section, and superb tactical section. Microprose decided to ride the wave and, after less than a year, released ''VideoGame/XCOMTerrorFromTheDeep'': under a shiny package of new graphics and sound, [[MissionPackSequel the game was exactly the same]], only taking place underwater, with difficulty re-balanced for the worse[[note]]due to complaints that the highest difficulty of the original was too easy - this was because of a bug that made it impossible to play above the ''easiest'' difficulty, the game being [[NintendoHard so hard that no one could tell]][[/note]], and bugs that could block the tech tree, making the game unwinnable. ''Videogame/XCOMApocalypse'' was from the original developers but, sadly, it completely lacked atmosphere and, while trying to be more complex, it became cumbersome. ''X-COM: Interceptor'' (a mediocre ''VideoGame/WingCommander'' clone) and ''X-COM: Enforcer'' (a shallow ThirdPersonShooter) followed and were quickly and deservedly forgotten, while more interesting projects were cancelled thanks to [[ExecutiveMeddling the mismanagements of Microprose and Hasbro Interactive]].** Firaxis Games' remake, ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' (note the lack of a hyphen), was well received by critics and fans. However, the same can't be said for its own prequel, ''VideoGame/TheBureauXCOMDeclassified''.* Nearly any ''VideoGame/{{Lemmings}}'' game after ''Lemmings 2: The Tribes''.* ''VideoGame/TombRaiderII'' was generally considered almost equal or an EvenBetterSequel on release. By ''[[VideoGame/TombRaiderChronicles Chronicles]]'', the ''Franchise/TombRaider'' series had firmly fell into this and ''[[VideoGame/TombRaiderTheAngelOfDarkness The Angel of Darkness]]'' was the last straw before the series began recovering by being moved from Core Design to Crystal Dynamics.* ''VideoGame/EarthwormJim'' was a weird and well-received game. The second game was even better in nearly every aspect. Then the series met the PolygonCeiling courtesy of a different developer, and anything resembling quality went out the window. Then Shiny Entertainment themselves [[CreatorKiller threw their own quality off their windows]] some time after dumping Jim.* The ''VideoGame/TonyHawksProSkater'' series started off as a unique concept to the industry and garnered hundreds of fans, with the [=PS2=] port of the third installment being one of the most critically-acclaimed games of its time. As the series progressed through the Underground titles, however, the changes became minimal and predictable, the over-the-top tone got stale really quickly and the series declined in overall quality, with the peripheral-based ''RIDE'' and ''SHRED'' installments getting intense lashings from critics and fans alike. It didn't help that EA's ''VideoGame/{{Skate}}'' had stolen the market from Activision, too. Like the hip-hop examples, they tried to rekindle interest with a ''Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5'', which was very incomplete and slammed hard by critics.* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' moves back and forth with this. ''Devil May Cry 2'' is generally considered to be far inferior to the original, what with its lousy story, bland combat, and greatly lowered difficulty level. ''Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening'' is usually seen as much better ([[EvenBetterSequel sometimes even better than the original]]). ''Devil May Cry 4'' is also seen by some as inferior, while others consider it to be decent but not as good as ''1'' or ''3''. As for the reboot, ''[[VideoGame/DmCDevilMayCry DmC: Devil May Cry]]'', it is widely despised by fans due to its "Westernized" approach, overly simplified combat system, and Dante becoming unappealingly douchey and his dialogue being completely immature and unfunny.* ''VideoGame/PerfectDark'' is considered one of the best Nintendo 64 games. Prequelitis ensued with ''Perfect Dark Zero'', you can essentially call it a InNameOnly prequel. The continuity of the first game is only glanced upon, Joanna is a spunky [[{{Stripperific}} oddly clad]] girl with red hair and a penchant for [[BondOneLiner one liners]]. The Carrington Institute makes an appearance... with Carrington himself having become 200% more Scottish, complete with a kilt. The aliens are non-existent only hinted, the main antagonist being a company connected to [=dataDyne=] being run by a small stereotypical Chinese man. The gameplay? The game was developed by a different team (because the original developers left Rare), that speaks for itself.* ''VideoGame/StarControl'' was a fun turn-based strategy game. ''Star Control 2'' was an epic action-adventure EvenBetterSequel. ''Star Control 3'', made by none of the people involved with the first two, is a game most fans [[FanonDisContinuity try to forget about]].* Some fans of the ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeed'' series argue the series got really bad after the third or so installment, especially when it started drifting into ''GTA'' territory.* There's a lot of flame wars out there about whether this applies to ''Franchise/FinalFantasy''. Seeing as the ''Final Fantasy'' title is just a way of advertising that it's a JRPG that Creator/SquareEnix put a lot of money into, this is somewhat nonsensical, but understandable.** Whether and at what point the mainline series has [[JumpingTheShark jumped the shark]] is a matter of [[BrokenBase great]] [[InternetBackdraft contention]], though you generally only hear this complaint starting with ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', which was a rather large departure in style, tone, and game design to the six games that came before it and came to define the franchise after it in spite of being the ''seventh'' title. Despite it literally being one of the best-selling games of all time and a critical and commercial success that no other entry in the series has equaled, fans of the first six games often blame this one first. The claims of "Sequelitis" tend to just grow from there. ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII,'' another radically different game in the series, was the first one to really start feeling the harsh blowback, though several games past this point (in spite of most of them reviewing and selling better than ''most games on the market'') tend to get singled out as "the one."** The few direct sequels / prequels have had mixed results. Some of them, like ''VideoGame/CrisisCore'', have been considered worthy follow-ups. Others, like ''[[Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren Advent Children]]'', ''Dirge of Cerberus'', and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2'', start flame wars.** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', on the other hand, was universally considered to be subpar upon release. The reception for the game was so bad that many of the staff working on it were laid off, and Square Enix had to make the game free to play in order to keep fans around. Because of this, the game underwent [[AuthorsSavingThrow a complete overhaul]] in order to fix the many problems that were addressed by reviewers. It divided people, but was better at least.* The ''VideoGame/ArmyMen'' franchise was initially insanely popular. Then somewhere the lackluster spin-offs and InNameOnly sequels slowly choked off sales until [=3DO=] finally went bankrupt in 2003. Even with the parent company dead, other companies are ''still'' trying to make cash off of the brand, the latest entries getting some of the worst reviews in shooting games.* ''VideoGame/{{Manhunt}}'' was a well-received game for its creepy tension, innovative use of sound, complex enemy AI, and [[{{Gorn}} wide variety of kill moves]]. ''Manhunt 2'' was a step back from that, with less intelligent enemies, less menace and tension, and a [[MindScrew confusing story]]. At least the {{Gorn}} is still good-or at least it was, until Rockstar was forced to censor it to avoid an AO rating.[[note]]This was necessary to allow the game to be published for consoles, since none of the major console manufacturers allow AO-rated games on their systems.[[/note]]* The original ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon'' was a fairly innovative beat 'em up that introduced some of the conventions used in later games of the genre like two-player co-op and obtainable weapons, while the arcade version of ''Double Dragon II'' was mostly a MissionPackSequel with a fairly improved NES version. ''Double Dragon 3'' on the other hand, featured crappier "realistic" graphics, replaced half of the original game's moves and weapons with ineffectual new ones, and added a gimmicky shopping system where you can purchase power-ups for your character (including a replacement character) [[BribingYourWayToVictory by inserting more tokens to the machine]]. There were a few more ''Double Dragon'' games after the third one, but the series never achieved the same level of popularity it once had with the first two games.** On home consoles, the NES edition of ''Double Dragon 3'' is still seen as a very good game despite its [[NintendoHard absurdly high difficulty]]. The series didn't start getting nailed into its coffin until ''Super Double Dragon'' which was rushed to the point that it hit shelves as an incomplete game. Then came the dismal ''Double Dragon V'' which, despite being a numbered sequel, wasn't even by the original developers, threw out the beat 'em up formula and swapped it for lackluster one-on-one fighting.* ''VideoGame/{{Shift}} 4'' lampshades this in the ending, aware that it is now a quadrilogy. ''"Who is the game that risks its rep on Sequel Shame? Shift!"'' Some people do think that the 2nd game was [[SurprisinglyImprovedSequel a vast improvement]], but the 3rd and 4th installments were pretty average at best.* ''VideoGame/BackyardSports'' started off as a decently enjoyable game series with clever characters and a good sense of humor. After Creator/{{Atari}}'s buy-out from Creator/HumongousEntertainment, the series began a noticeable drop in quality. Then when the 2007 titles came in, [[Horrible/VideoGames it was agreed the series had lost all respect.]]* ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'' averted this, barely, with 'standalone expansion' ''Cataclysm'', despite it being a literal MissionPackSequel. It caught some flak for the dramatic shift in narrative tone and the new tech and ship designs were a bit hit-or-miss, but it did some pretty cool stuff with the existing graphics engine and generally came across like the development team at sub-contractee Barking Dog had at least ''played'' the original. ''Homeworld 2'' was a bit less fortunate, however; a lot of the original creative team had moved on in the interim, and Relic massively over-extended themselves trying to create game environments with 'megastructures' straight out of the best kind of SpaceOpera and generally go SerialEscalation, and much of the more CrazyAwesome stuff failed to make the final cut. The end result was by no means ''bad'' -the graphics stand up quite well six years later and it's a ''lot'' more [[GameMod mod-friendly]] than the previous two- but the finished product had several minor but annoying bugs and balance issues and generally felt rushed. The gulf between Relic's original vision and the final release version didn't help.* ''VideoGame/ThunderForce VI''. Released over 10 years after ''Thunder Force V'', it came to be a massive disappointment amongst fans. Very short game length (even by shmup standards), the lack of the "direct" control scheme from ''V'', bosses that are made [[BreatherBoss pathetically easy]] thanks to a certain ship's LimitBreak, excessive {{Internal Homage}}s, and stages that pale in comparison to the rest of the series; the last stage, for instance, looks like a cheap version of ''Thunder Force V'''s Stage 4. * The fourth game in the ''VideoGame/{{Avernum}}'' series switched from the antiquated engine and sketch-like, endearing graphics of the first three to something more powerful and ([[UncannyValley theoretically]]) more realistic, and hence got hit with TheyChangedItNowItSucks. Since the new engine was taken from ''VideoGame/{{Geneforge}}'', it also got hit with TheyCopiedItSoItSucks. And since the plot was quite similar to that of the third game, it was also subject to ItsTheSameSoItSucks. Then there were the complaints when the game was taken on its own merits...* The ''{{Spider-Man}}'' movie spinoff games demonstrated much the same path as the movies: the first one is good, the second is ''awesome'', then things go a bit downhill. Fortunately, ''Web of Shadows'' was there to fix matters after ''Friend or Foe'', which we [[FanonDiscontinuity do not talk about]].* The ''Franchise/ShiningSeries'' really was ''the'' fantasy series in the Sega Genesis era topping off with an amazing if little-known [[VideoGame/ShiningForceIII three-part finale]] on the UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn. Attempts to branch off into the action-adventure genre have varied between mediocre-but-passable (''SF Neo'', ''SF EXA'', ''VideoGame/ShiningSoul II'') to forgettable (''VideoGame/ShiningTears'', the original ''Shining Soul''). Atlus and Sega did a competent job with the GameBoyAdvance EnhancedRemake of the first ''VideoGame/ShiningForce''. Fans have been waiting for years to see if a remake of ''Shining Force II'' will surface, but it's looking increasingly unlikely every day.* ''VideoGame/MaddenNFL'' and similiar sport game series are notorious for being continued every year, usually with next to no changes in gameplay or even graphics. The main difference is updated statistics and players.* The UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} games from the same publisher (EA Sports) and developer (EA Tiburon) as Madden suffered a particularly bad case of this, with sales dropping off with each increasingly sub-mediocre entry. The series was eventually killed outright after having a particularly awful faceplant onto 7th-generation consoles.* The arcade version of ''BeatmaniaIIDX [[NumberedSequels 9th Style]]'' didn't go so well with fans. The judgment timing windows are inconsistent from song to song; one song may be ridiculously easy to score on, another may feel very tight, another may be off, etc. In addition, ''9th Style'' took out the Effector, a staple of the series, and a GameBreakingBug sometimes causes the game to crash upon selecting "Quasar". ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution X'' and ''X2'', especially the console versions, suffered from similar problems.* Sony's former two [=PS1=]-era platformer franchises, ''Franchise/CrashBandicoot'' and ''Franchise/SpyroTheDragon'', share a similar fate of both being franchises that started out with a solid [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1996 first]] [[VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon1998 game]], [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot2CortexStrikesBack followed]] [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped by]] [[VideoGame/Spyro2RiptosRage two]] [[VideoGame/SpyroYearOfTheDragon sequels]] that were [[EvenBetterSequel better than the first]], and then afterwards succumbing to FranchiseZombie territory after being mishandled by the same parent company (Universal Interactive Studios/Vivendi Games). Crash's first outing without Creator/NaughtyDog, ''[[VideoGame/CrashBandicootTheWrathOfCortex Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex]]'', was SoOkayItsAverage at best, but it was at least playable compared to ''VideoGame/SpyroEnterTheDragonfly'', Spyro's first outing without Creator/InsomniacGames. It's an ObviousBeta of a game that suffered from uninspired level design, LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading (they even had loading screens ''[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment for the loading-screens!]]''), terrible graphics, terrible voice acting (which shows how much they cared, almost the entire voice cast reprised their roles), and being so glitchy that achieving OneHundredPercentCompletion was impossible.* ''VideoGame/BloodyRoar'' peaked early with ''Bloody Roar II'', and every game since that one hit a drop in quality that ended with ''Bloody Roar 4''. By then, the series had devolved into a mindless ButtonMashing game, and was hard to take seriously.* ''[[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic]]'' fell into this once the series [[PolygonCeiling went 3D]]. ** [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1 The]] [[VideoGame/SonictheHedgehog2 first]] [[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles four titles]] on the Sega Genesis (as well as [[VideoGame/SonicCD the obscure installment]] for the Sega CD add-on) were highly praised at the time of their release, and are still largely considered the best titles in the series. The series was largely out of the limelight during the Sega Saturn, with Sonic Team pursuing [[VideoGame/NiGHTSIntoDreams different]] [[VideoGame/BurningRangers projects]] and Sega making new ''Sonic'' games without them to little success (with the cancellation of ''[[{{Vaporware}} Sonic X-treme]]'', what would had been the VideoGame3DLeap for the series, being the most [[TroubledProduction notorious]] [[ExecutiveMeddling example]] of this).** The franchise eventually made its 3D leap through the ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' series on the Sega Dreamcast. While they are regarded as good games (particularly the latter) they are widely considered to be a step down from the classics, due to various bugs and glitches and a poor camera. The alternate gameplay is also a point of contention. ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'' was considered to be average. ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'' was mostly panned. The series reached a low point with ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 Sonic 2006]]'', a rushed, glitch-ridden mess that is near-universally despised by gamers and critics alike. The trend initially started to reverse with ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'', with the subsequent console versions of ''VideoGame/SonicColors'' and ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' being lauded by fans as the best 3D titles in the franchise; but with ''VideoGame/SonicLostWorld'' proving to be a seriously divisive with critics and fans and the ''VideoGame/SonicBoom'' tie-in games being outright duds, whether the next game will continue the series' rebound or take things further south is anyone's guess.** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog4'' compared to its direct predecessors (the aforementioned Genesis titles), upon which its two episodes are considered anything but worthy followups. Even whether they are considered good games in their own right is [[ContestedSequel contested]].* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' is getting this with a new game getting released yearly with ten games so far. People[[note]]though not its teenage target audience[[/note]] are starting to realize they are paying $60 for games very similar to each other every year, as ''Ghosts'' has sold less than many of the previous ''Call of Duty'' games before it.* ''VideoGame/LEGOIsland 2: The Brickster's Revenge'' is somewhere between this and ContestedSequel. It was beyond rushed to the shelves, and the final product a very extreme case of LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading, dull and lifeless voice acting, painfully linear gameplay, no replay factor, [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome a removal of a lot of characters]], [[GuideDangIt little explanation to anything]], and mediocre animation.* The first ''VideoGame/LEGOStarWars'' game was somewhat enjoyable for kids, and since that focused on the prequel trilogy it made sense to eventually follow it up with a sequel based on the classic trilogy. However since then, discounting minor additions they've essentially been using the exact same gameplay and simply applied it to different licensed themes, having now done ''VideoGame/LegoIndianaJones'' (two of 'em), ''VideoGame/LegoHarryPotter'', ''VideoGame/LegoTheLordOfTheRings'', ''VideoGame/LegoBatman'', and ''VideoGame/LegoMarvelSuperHeroes''. Aside from the last two, all the games are basically made up of levels loosely based on scenes from their respective movies (with cutscenes that are literally just cheesy re-enactments with no dialogue) and some hanging out in a notable location from the respective franchise in between.* The first two episodes of ''VideoGame/EyeOfTheBeholder'', while not revolutionary, were excellent dungeon crawlers and the second is recognized as an EvenBetterSequel. Then Westwood went on to work on VideoGame/LandsOfLore but SSI decided to make another sequel anyway. The result was a game that brought back many of the flaws of the original and amplified them, with absurd mazes and frustrating difficulty, and suffered from a mediocrely programmed engine too.* The general consensus of the ''VideoGame/StarFox'' series after ''VideoGame/StarFox64''. There's so much FanMyopia that it has led to one of the most [[BrokenBase broken]] fanbases of all time. Creator/{{Nintendo}} themselves have caught on to the decrease in sales, and though Miyamoto joked about it, it took the series ''almost a decade'' to get a new game (''Star Fox 64 3D'' notwithstanding).* The first two ''VideoGame/FlatOut'' games were well-known for their destructible environments and ragdoll driver physics - the most amusing parts being the mini-games that involved the player launching their driver out of his car into various targets and watching him flop around in pain. Five years separated the second and third games, and development was taken up by Team 6 Games (of ''European Street Racer'' infamy) while Bugbear Interactive worked on ''VideoGame/RidgeRacer: Unbounded''. Unfortunately, Team 6's ''[=FlatOut=]'' game looks ugly, is riddled with bugs, and none of the tracks are fun to navigate.* ''VideoGame/EarnestEvans'' isn't so well regarded as ''VideoGame/ElViento'', in part due to poor gameplay and design and most infamously, poorly done graphics, especially on the titular hero, who is made up of multiple sprites put together to create the illusion of more fluid movement, but only succeeded in making Earnest look like a deranged marionette. The cutscenes in ''Earnest Evans'' are commonly poorly done, though they were removed completely from the American version, which tried to make it a sequel rather than a prequel to ''El Viento''. The Earnest Evans trilogy ended with the Japan-only title ''Annet Futatabi'', a ''GoldenAxe'' ripoff whose most outstanding points were cutscenes and copious FakeDifficulty.* ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden III'' was a major departure from what made the first two Xbox/[=PS3=] entries memorable, stripping Ryu of most of his arsenal[[note]]only his sword, his bow and arrows, and one of his ninjutsu were carried over; the rest are available in the game's multiplayer mode via DLC packs[[/note]] and nerfing the previous games' [[NintendoHard punishing difficulty]] to the point that battles are no longer challenging ''or'' fun.* The general consensus of ''VideoGame/SteelBattalion: Heavy Armor'' is that while the original game's controller was bulky and gimmicky, at least it ''worked''. ''Heavy Armor's'' hybrid Kinect/traditional controller setup was meant to mimic this feeling without the use of as many buttons, but the implementation is sloppy and the game is barely playable as a result.* ''VideoGame/StreetFighterXTekken'', despite a lot of early excitement among the fighting game community, never caught on as well as Capcom's previous IntercontinuityCrossover games did (with the exception of ''Capcom Fighting Evolution'', which is perceived to be just as bad), mainly due to its slower pacing and gimmicky "Gem" system that granted temporary status buffs. The decision to lock most of ''[=SFxT's=]'' content behind a paywall (most infamously including a dozen fighters that were coded into the game discs at launch, but not officially added to the roster until months after the game's release) drew even heavier criticism, along with derisive jokes about future Capcom games shipping with disc-locked DLC.* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'':** The ''VideoGame/MarioParty'' series is filled to the brim with this trope. Every sequel has had a few new gimmicks and mini games to stand out from the game before it, but eventually, the games started to rehash older mini games/boards/gimmicks with a slight tweak to them. Fan favorite Donkey Kong was quickly shunted to the side as an NPC after being a playable character in a few games and has even completely vanished from some of the party games as well. Other characters kept coming and going like a revolving door; characters like Toad and Blooper would appear in only one or two games while others like Birdo and Dry Bones only appeared in certain other games. Since the party games kept being released every year or every other year, fans started to notice just how stale the series had gotten, which may explain why ''Mario Party 9'' came out four years after the eighth party and revamped the basics of the game.** The ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' games have this. [[VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor The second]] is usually considered superior to the original and is seen as the high point of the series. ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' is generally agreed to be a step down in gameplay, but it's said to have the best story out of all the games. ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'', however, is considered to be a complete step down in both [[ExcusePlot story]] and gameplay by revamping combat and making battles redundant.** The ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' series. While they all received a generally good critical reception and were huge commercial successes for Nintendo; the sequels had also fallen under criticism for [[ItsTheSameSoItSucks not bringing much to the table]]. The [[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii second]] and [[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros2 third]] titles in particular were criticized for reusing levels and music from the previous entries while not introducing much new mechanics [[note]]The former brought back [[VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld Yoshi]] to the fold --albeit in a limited form-- and added co-op multiplayer, while the latter put emphasis on coin collection.[[/note]], while the [[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosU fourth]] title is considered a bit of an improvement for revamping the artstyle and refining the additions added in the past titles. The entire series is also viewed as such by fans of the NES/SNES Mario titles, who feel the series [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks stripped out too many things from the older titles]] and failed to considerably advance the 2D Mario formula.** A ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' hack series, [[http://u9.getuploader.com/SIG Super Sig World]], has ''twenty five'' installments in about two or three years. They're considered terrible, with the best ones being merely average as the amount of reused content is kind of staggering. Just making a 70-level game every three months is perceived like overkill.** The ''VideoGame/MarioTennis'' subseries hit this trope with its Wii U installment, ''Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash'', getting even worse reviews than its predecessors for its atrocious lack of content. * ''Franchise/SilentHill'':** ''VideoGame/SilentHill1'' was good. ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'' and ''VideoGame/SilentHill3'' were better. ''VideoGame/SilentHill4'' was debatable. ''VideoGame/SilentHillOrigins'' and ''VideoGame/SilentHillHomecoming''... were really debatable. Although some people think ''Downpour'' helped the series get back on track, but is still the subject of debate.** On the other hand, ''VideoGame/SilentHills'' and the related demo, PT, received mostly positive responses. Unfortunately, the game was canceled and its demo removed from the PSN store, leaving the world to imagine WhatCouldHaveBeen.* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' series:** The series was heading this way starting with [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis the third game]] which re-hashed [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2 the second game]] only giving more emphasis on the Raccoon City outbreak. ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica'' (the technical fourth game) hardly added anything new to the formula save some improved camera angles. The remake of the first game picked up some interest but that fell with ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilZero'' which coasted by on a gimmick that let you switch between the two characters. After a few side games (''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvilGunSurvivor Survivor]]'', ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvilGaiden Gaiden]]'', ''Dead Aim'', the ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvilOutbreak Outbreak]]'' games), the series did an overhaul with ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' which was praised as one of the better games. Then [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil5 part five]] came and it was considered more of the same only with co-op added. The less said about ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilOperationRaccoonCity'' the better.** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'' got an overall mixed reception compared to previous installments, with most of the professional reviews being extremely polarized as really positive or really negative.* When Activision took over the ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' franchise from Red Octane, they released a ton of sequels in a very short time. While the quality of the sequels varies, the constant [[CapcomSequelStagnation stagnation between those games]] choked the life out of the genre for several years.* ''VideoGame/AnotherWorld'' wasn't intended to have a sequel, but Interplay, who brought the game to the U.S. (as ''Out of This World''), decided they really needed to produce one. The result was ''Heart of the Alien'', a mess of a game which only confirmed Eric Chahi's initial doubts.* ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars II'' has gotten a lot of flak from the original's fans for dramatic shifts in the mechanics and unneeded extra complexity for no obvious good reason.* ''VideoGame/CallOfJuarezTheCartel'', riding off the successful ''VideoGame/CallOfJuarezBoundInBlood'', shifted the series from the Old West into a more modern setting and brought with it unresponsive controls, graphical glitches galore, and uninspired level design that [[{{Railroading}} penalizes you for going off track]]. Thankfully, the series was able to quickly get back on its feet with ''[[VideoGame/CallOfJuarezGunslinger Gunslinger]].''* ''VideoGame/ArmyOfTwo: The Devil's Cartel''. The first two games didn't break much new ground in the ThirdPersonShooter genre, instead embracing the [[RatedMForManly macho "bro" culture]] for all their worth. The third game in the series does so as well, but strips away the few unique elements the other games ''did'' have[[note]]including demoting the wisecracking, bro-fisting duo of Salem and Rios to [=NPCs=] and replacing them with generically-named masked commandos "Alpha" and "Bravo"[[/note]], robbing the series of its charm.* The first ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}'' wasn't a huge success but earned a cult following due to its bizarre characters and oppressive, incredibly dark plot with controversial and taboo subject matters such as incest, pedophilia, cannibalism, etc (though some of this was eliminated in {{Bowdlerization}}). The second game has its fans, but is widely accused of having betrayed the spirit of the original, due to SE wanting to tone down the dark elements to make the game more marketable, resulting in it being LighterandSofter and having a much more generic main character and plot, when the point of the first game was to serve as a DeconstructorFleet for these types of things. SE apparently realized this didn't go over well and allowed Creator/TaroYoko, the director of the first game, back on board with creative freedom resulting in ''VideoGame/{{NieR}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard 3}}'' which were much more well-received for going back to the series' roots, though the latter has its share of detractors thanks to the game's DenserAndWackier tone compared to ''Drakengard 1'' and ''Nier''.* The Hub's ''VideoGame/AdventurePonies'' is an amusing little {{retraux}} Flash platformer that, while not amazingly good, is a fun way to kill an hour or two. ''Adventure Ponies 2: Wait! There's More?!'' wasn't as warmly received; besides the loss of the colorful backgrounds of the first game in favor of brown forests (???) and caverns, the game is essentially a MissionPackSequel to the original game with different characters. Even looking past that, it's a lot buggier than its big brother (the game has been known to crash to a sprite sheet or debug menu on occasion).* The ''VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans'' franchise started with a well-liked game set in the '50s, followed this up with an okay game set in the '60s, and finished up with two games set in the '70s that received such bad reviews they [[FranchiseKiller shot the franchise down with a seeker missile]].* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'' and its expansions are generally agreed to have suffered from this.** The original Dawn of War was quite liked. The combination of hard counters and the ability to customize armies was hailed as a brilliant move, and though the balance was far from perfect (due to every race but one mostly comprising heavy infantry and thus being especially vulnerable to the Eldar race's use of said hard counters), it was a decent game.** Then came ''Winter Assault'', which was originally anticipated for its addition of the Imperial Guard and several units for the existing sides. And then it hit, and the fanbase raged. Fresh out of the gate, Chaos players were severely miffed that their Chaos Marines had ''all'' their heavy weapons ripped out in an attempt to streamline the tech trees, the hard counter system was gone, and special fury was caused by the fact that Terminators and Obliterators had been nerfed hilariously. Unit obsolescence was also a large problem here.** Following ''Winter Assault'', ''Dark Crusade'' promised fixes on several problems with the original game and ''Winter Assault'', and it was a very bold attempt after the failure of ''Winter Assault'', including an addition of a hard cap system, the return of some CSM heavy weapons, and several problems with Space Marines were fixed. Unfortunately, the game remained riddled with problems, and it introduced one of the most hated "fixes" in the series. Apparently having decided that firing on the move was overpowered, Relic introduced a flat accuracy penalty for firing on the move. ''15%''. No Dreadnought ever saw a weapon upgrade again, as the assault cannon was not only functionally useless (and all other units intended to fire on the move became useless as well), it hindered the Dread's melee ability, and the Eldar Fleet of Foot ability became tantamount to godmode. This was an ability on practically all Eldar infantry that boosted their movement speed beyond everything in the game, and with the accuracy reduction, there was no reason at all not to use it. A plethora of other glitches also existed. Then, after a 7 month wait for a patch, it came. And not only did it leave many things unchanged, it nerfed practically everything but Eldar, the race that was even before the patch decried by numerous fans as overpowered. In addition to all this, the two new races introduced were also blatantly broken on release.** And then ''Soulstorm'' came out and balanced a great many things, thanks to Iron Lore. Unfortunately, it was not to be: THQ and Relic forced the addition of flying units, something the engine was never designed to accommodate, in the process cutting the addition of many greatly-demanded units like Ork Wyrdboyz, the Leman Russ Demolisher and the Wraithguard, for example. The game's voice acting and script were also greatly criticized. And then it happened. 19 hours after launch, a game-breaking glitch for the Sisters of Battle was found that effectively killed all multiplayer until after a 9 month wait for a fix, and by that point, the game was well and truly dead. The game also suffered from multiple other glitches and bugs, and the Eldar remained blatantly overpowered.* ''VideoGame/EpicMickey'' was an average game at worst, suffering mostly from CameraScrew, janky controls, and [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot not living up to the (admittedly impressive) hype]]. ''Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two'' took all the problems the original had and left them basically unchanged (if anything, they got worse), and added co-op play with a broken AI, grating voices and song sections, and boring puzzles. The resulting game collapsed with a quarter of the original's sales and [[CreatorKiller took its developer with it.]]* In spite of being the most story driven of the ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo'' series, ''YON'' and ''7'' are often seen as this due to its usage of [[ScrappyMechanic Scrappy Mechanics]].* ''[[VideoGame/PanelDePon Planet Puzzle League]]'' is generally disliked by longtime fans of the series for having slower, floatier mechanics than previous games, cutting out popular features from previous games such as 3D mode and four-player multiplayer while adding very little in return, and most notoriously almost completely removing the mascot characters, excising the story in the process, in favor of a bland, generic "techno" motif. The only trace of the franchise's roots is Lip's stage as an unlockable - and the Western releases didn't even get ''that'' much!* The ''VideoGame/DarkParables'' series of hidden object games have fallen victim to this, with ten games in the series. It's generally considered that the first four games in the series are the best, with original storytelling and gameplay. Starting with the fifth game, ''The Final Cinderella'', the reviews weren't as positive as the games began to repeat game mechanics, dropped in art quality, and shifting story focus; however, the next game, ''Jack and the Sky Kingdom'', was well received. It also hasn't helped the following installments that Blue Tea Games eventually sold the game series to another developer, Eipix; the eighth game, ''The Little Mermaid and the Purple Tide,'' was a collaboration between the two in order to transition the series to Eipix, and this is considered one of the weakest games in the series. The fandom is divided over the quality of the series as it progresses.* The ''VideoGame/DarkTales'' series has been experiencing this since its sixth game, with player opinion of the quality varying widely. The eighth game, ''The Tell-Tale Heart'', has unquestionably the worst reviews of any game in the series, thanks largely to the ending which does nothing to resolve the mystery.* The first three games in Sony's ''NFL [=GameDay=]'' series (especially ''[=GameDay=] '98'') were highly innovative in both their realism and gameplay; one reviewer predicted that ''[=GameDay=]'' would displace EA's well-established ''Madden NFL'' franchise. In fact, the opposite occurred; ''Madden'' grew more sophisticated over time, while subsequent ''[=GameDay=]'' installments were criticized for having mediocre graphics and uninspired gameplay. Gamers evidently agreed, as sales declined until Sony cancelled the series in 2005.* The first game in the ''VideoGame/KunioKun'' series was localised for western audiences as ''Renegade'' and considered to be a fine BeatEmUp, enough so that Ocean Software made their own separate sequels to it. The first sequel, ''Target: Renegade'', combining the original game with cues from the then-nascent ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon'' franchise was also well received and considered a worthy sequel. The third game, ''Renegade III: The Final Chapter'', received a very poor reception, was widely considered to be an InNameOnly entry in the series and ended up being a FranchiseKiller - no new ''Renegade'' games were released after it.* ''Franchise/DeadOrAlive Xtreme Beach Volleyball'', a girls-only spinoff of the main ''DOA'' fighting games, offered a decent volleyball game to go with its heaping helping of {{fanservice}}. While ''Dead or Alive Xtreme 2'' boasted better character models and a few more minigames, much of its content was recycled from the first ''DOAX'', and the new content wasn't compelling enough to justify its initial cost.* ''VideoGame/SNKVsCapcom: Card Fighters DS'', despite its much wider variety of playable cards compared to its two UsefulNotes/NeoGeo Color Pocket predecessors, is commonly perceived as having a weaker and more [[GameBreaker easy-to-break]] battle system. First-run English copies also contained an unavoidable GameBreakingBug that prevented completion of the NewGamePlus.* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' has an in-universe example. Alphys, the geeky royal scientist, spends a great deal of her social media posts ranting about how terrible ''Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2'' (seemingly a direct parody of the above ''Tokyo Mew Mew a la mode'') is compared to the original.* ''Franchise/AloneInTheDark'': The second game is generally seen as one of the worst in the series, due to a combination of rushing it out to try and capitalize on the original's success (the director later acknowledged in an interview that they knew the game was buggy and unbalanced, but weren't concerned about the quality) and [[ActionizedSequel attempting to cash in on Wolfenstein 3D's success.]] The end result is it's essentially a shooter, but it made no attempt to change the base gameplay (you'll often end up getting shot at from offscreen, and in the unlikely event that you do manage to get an enemy in your view, good luck aiming at him) and ends up borderline unplayable. The entire "horror" thing is also completely absent, with it taking the little moments of silliness that were common in contemporary horror games and cranking them up to eleven until the game became a self-parody. It really says something when the most famous part of a "survival horror" game involves bludgeoning zombie dwarf cooks to death with a frying pan while wearing a Santa outfit. Fortunately, the third game reintroduced the adventure elements from the original and took itself a bit more seriously.** The poor reception for ''Alone in The Dark: Illumination'' may [[FranchiseKiller finally put the franchise to rest.]]* ''VideoGame/ParappaTheRapper'' was the TropeMaker for the RhythmGame genre and was a smashing success. Spin off ''Um Jammer Lammy'' was made 2 years later and was met with similar praise, but some criticisms pointed out how the game wasn't much different from ''Parappa''. ''Parappa'' got a sequel a few years later and while it was a decent game, reviews and fans alike rated the game lower than the original game for not doing anything different with the gameplay and cited the songs as not being memorable compared to the first game. THere was going to be a 3rd game, but it was put into DevelopmentHell and the series eventually faded away into obscurity as other games like ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution'' put a new spin on the genre and grew popular from there.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Video]]* The ''WebVideo/MicrosoftSamReadsFunnyWindowsErrors'' subseries Microsoft Sam And The War Trilogy has The Great Final War, which was so poorly received due to its excessive drama tone that it was cancelled and currently undergoing a major revamp.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]* ''WesternAnimation/StaticShock'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheZetaProject'' are part of the DCAU, which also contains such well-loved classics as ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', and ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', all acclaimed for their mature story lines, great characters and voice actors, and excellent animation. However, those two are considered far less intriguing, as they are taken to much lighter tone, as they lack many aspects that made the DCAU so memorable. While the two were far from terrible, and they still had their fair share of likable characters, and a few good episodes, they are far below the other series. Part of this reason is because of the lack of Creator/BruceTimm and Creator/PaulDini. The other reason is because Static and Zeta aren't DC characters; Static was from Milestone Comics (though DC was their publisher), while Zeta was an entirely new character originating from an episode of ''Batman Beyond''. ''WebAnimation/GothamGirls'', a web-series, is another example. It is considered more of a parody series, and its official place in the DCAU is disputed. There is also a web-series based off of Lobo, and as with ''Gotham Girls'', its continuity status is not known. Lobo is not considered too good, however.* This is the general consensus of ''WesternAnimation/PlanetSheen'', the spinoff-sequel to ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius.'' How, you wonder? They removed almost everything from the original, focused on a character who was tolerated at best, flanderized him to make him even less popular, and went from somewhat realistic to bizarre. Also suffers from FanonDiscontinuity.* The popular opinion of ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'', an {{Expy}}-filled "spin-off" of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''.* ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'' is this to ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'', due to being a rather generic SliceOfLife show that suffers badly from MostWritersAreAdults, when the original had a fairly unique premise. Plus, even fans disliked the second season.* ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' was doing just fine on its own, so no one knows quite why ExecutiveMeddling decided to force the addition of [[WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures Elmyra]] into the show (especially considering a previous episode had made it abundantly clear that a third main character would be basically useless). The resultant ReTool, ''WesternAnimation/PinkyElmyraAndTheBrain'', had a few bright spots, but for the most part was enjoyed by neither viewing audiences nor those working on the show.* Part of the ''Franchise/{{Ben 10}}'' fanbase considers ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'' as such, though some would consider the series before it, ''[[WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien Ultimate Alien]]''. ''[[WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce Alien Force]]'' has also been hit by this, owing to the tendency of the sequels to take liberty with the canon at the risk of contradicting one another or the original series. * ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' isn't a direct sequel to ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' per se, but being a follow-up series, it still counts given its worse animation, concentration on goofy humor, and occasionally near-SadistShow levels of meanness from the main characters. The original was a blend of humor and weirdness with genuine plot and character moments. It's at least popular with children* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'', depending on who you ask, given the mixed reception of its followups compared to ''Total Drama Island'', which enjoyed the greatest critical acclaim. The trend began with the first sequel ''Action'', which was widely regarded as having failed to recapture the fun and excitement of the original; then came along ''Total Drama World Tour'', considered to have been a major improvement over its predecessor, if not superior to the original, but also suffered from a BrokenBase due to several divisive plot points. ''Revenge of the Island'', the first to feature a new cast became a major BaseBreakingCharacter among fans who still dispute whether the second cast proved a positive addition to the series or not, and for taking the series in a new direction with its shorter length and more "kid-friendly" tone. The next season, ''All-Stars'' however has been regarded as abysmal by large sections of the fandom who took issue with the handling of the majority of the returning cast, numerous plot points that are either nonsensical or completely abandoned at the drop of a hat, and its controversial ending. Finally, ''Pahkitew Island'' saw the debut of yet another new cast and a new island, and was much more warmly received by fans than its predecessor with some even deeming it to be almost as good as ''Island'', despite lingering disagreements over how the third cast compares to the previous two once more as well as arguments of how it continued to make the same kind of mistakes as the last two seasons (which becomes more apparent upon hearing that both ''Pahkitew Island'' & ''All-Stars'' were produced simultaneously).* Though still funny, the sequel to ''WesternAnimation/DuckAmuck'', ''Rabbit Rampage'', [[RecycledScript reads almost exactly like its predecessor]], only with Bugs Bunny being the character who gets screwed with instead of Daffy Duck.* Averted with the Bugs Bunny "Opera Trilogy." While ''The Long-Haired Hare'' and ''Rabbit of Seville'' are hilarious, the third and last of them, ''WesternAnimation/WhatsOperaDoc'', ranks at '''''#1''''' on ''The Fifty Greatest Cartoons''.* Three years after the release of ''Rabbit Punch'', Creator/ChuckJones made a sequel/remake, the much less memorable ''Bunny Hugged''.* 1980's ''Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century''. While ''WesternAnimimation/DuckDodgersInTheTwentyFourthAndAHalfCentury'' remains a classic, ''Return'' proved less funny, leading to FanonDiscontinuity and, according to Cartoon Network, CanonDiscontinuity.* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls2016'' is this to [[WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls the original]]. Fans of the original show dislike the newer villains for lacking the quality of the original show while pushing them out of the spotlight, the {{Flanderization}} of the girls and their voice change, the wonky animation, and weak plots among other reasons. Unlike ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'', this show doesn't have the benefit of being a follow-up show, it's a direct continuation. It wasn't ''nearly'' as popular with it target audience as Teen Titans Go.[[/folder]]----